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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #67883 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67883)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The End of Elfintown, by Jane Barlow
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: The End of Elfintown
-
-Author: Jane Barlow
-
-Illustrator: Laurence Housman
-
-Release Date: April 20, 2022 [eBook #67883]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Charlene Taylor, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
- Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
- produced from images generously made available by The
- Internet Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF ELFINTOWN ***
-
-
-
-
-
- [Illustration:
-
- THE END OF
- ELFINTOWN
-
- BY
- JANE BARLOW
- ILLUSTRATED BY
- LAURENCE HOUSMAN
-
- LONDON
- MACMILLAN & CO.
- 1894]
-
-
-
-
- I.--THE BUILDING
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
- Now would that he who knew so well
- Of fierce Pigwiggin’s armour fell,
- And angered Oberon’s wrath, to tell,
- And how their feud was ended,
- Yea, would that he, ere hence he sped,
- Had writ in gold, as I in lead,
- For men to learn why Fays be fled,
- And whitherward they wended.
-
- It hapt in ages far agone
- A harmful spell was cast upon
- That Elfin King, great Oberon,
- And teen and trouble brought him;
- And albeit none can track the skill
- That wove the charm full-fraught with ill,
- We wot the Bad Brown Witch’s will
- Such perilous mischief wrought him.
-
- For she by magic showed him clear,
- In mirroring crystal of her mere,
- A wondrous Town; ’twas many a year
- Ere yet its like were builded;
- But thro’ her might of gramarie
- She made the Elfin Prince to see
- The grandest that on earth should be,
- And most by wealth-wand gilded.
-
- ’Twas shrunk, I trow, to seemly size
- For straiter range of Elfin eyes,
- But else it had its mortal guise,
- No sight, no stir omitted,
- With tower and temple, and mart and street,
- And prison and palace, all complete,
- And whirr of wheels, and hurry of feet
- That hither thither flitted.
-
- Whereon the King much-marvelling gazed,
- Admiring more, and more amazed,
- Till, when the Witch its image razed,
- Still in his heart it tarried,
- (A secret that he might not tell),
- And home unto his woodland dell
- That city’s vision, like a spell,
- O’er all his thoughts he carried.
-
- And since that day he dwelled no more
- In joyance blithe as theretofore,
- But sadly aye himself he bore
- Amid the sunniest shining;
- Nor quivering beam, nor fluttering breeze,
- Nor flickering shade, his sense could please;
- He dreamed of rarer things than these,
- And for their lack was pining.
-
- From harebell’s tent to bindweed’s hall,
- From cup-moss low to foxglove tall,
- He shifted oft his couch withal,
- Yet still would chide his chamber,
- And said the glowworm-lamps burned dim,
- And slurred the dew at rose-bud’s rim;
- The kingcup’s gold looked dull to him,
- And cowslip’s gawds of amber.
-
- Hence, on his discontents to brood,
- He sat one eve in sorry mood,
- While whispering Elves around him stood,
- And said ’twas strange, ’twas pity;
- When, sudden, light as leaf on spray,
- He leaped and laughed: “By Flowers o’ May,
- Mine Elves,” quoth he, “our own essay
- Shall build as fair a city.”
-
- And eagerly at morrow’s light
- He hasted forth to choose a site,
- Whereon should now be reared aright
- Strong walls and storeys stately.
- He found it soon: an earth-plot bare
- Beyond an elm’s droop; six yards square;
- No sod, no moss, no weed, throve there,
- Which pleased King Oberon greatly.
-
- “For thro’ those streets,” said he, “was seen
- No blade of grass, or glint of green,
- But pavements ferly smooth and clean;
- Small fear of footsteps tripping.”
- Not far away a brook bobbed by:
- “From thence,” he said, “we may supply
- Our waterworks; and soothly I
- Grow weary of dew-drop sipping.”
-
- Then hied him home amain, and shook
- His drowsy Fays from every nook,
- And bade them follow with him, and look
- Where splendour should be springing;
- And ere the earliest star blinked down
- Upon that earth-patch bare and brown,
- The first white pebble of Elfintown
- He laid ’mid cheers loud-ringing.
-
- And now, indeed, industrious days
- Be risen upon the land of Fays,
- Where every liege his Lord obeys,
- And toils beside his neighbour.
- They plied them late, they plied them soon,
- In dew of dawn, thro’ drowth of noon,
- Nay, oft the wan light of a moon
- Swam in to lamp their labour.
-
- No more round Faery-ring they swept
- In mazy measures ere they slept;
- But, silent, to his lair each crept,
- Limb wearied, sinews aching.
- No more they couched in campion’s cell,
- Or slumbered soft in lily-bell;
- Prone on the ground they flung pell-mell,
- Brief rest from task-work taking.
-
- Some kneaded stubborn clay for bricks,
-
-[Illustration:
-
-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
-
- With shells’ jagged splints some sawed at sticks,
- Some delved the soil with brier-thorn picks
- To helves of flax-haulm fitted;
- On business more than one can name
- From dawn to dusk they went and came;
- None durst his share refuse for shame,
- Nor would with sloth be twitted.
-
- And brutish things, that creep and crawl
- Stingless and strong, they did enthrall
- To burdens bear, and pull and haul,
- Along the highways goaded;
- There might ye see the Beetle black
- Come lumbering down the dusty track,
- With pebble-blocks piled on his back,
- Or mossy twig-beams loaded.
-
- And oft they ponderous weights would heap
- On slow-paced Slugs, who, half-asleep,
- For many a tedious yard must creep,
- Their drivers by them trudging;
- Even nimbler Ants they made submit
- To bridle and curb of cobweb knit,
- Unruly teams, that plunged and bit,
- Against the yoke sore grudging.
-
- Thus, sped by toil of serf and Fay,
- The work lagged nowise; day by day
- New mansions rose in rich array
- Beside the paven causey;
- Their like was ne’er in Elfland known,
- Some built of brick, and some of stone,
- And roofed with mica slabs that shone,
- And glazed with gnat-wings gauzy.
-
- But, fairest amongst all these descried,
- Stood in the middle edified
- The Palace where the King should bide,
- Well worthy a royal master;
- Of whitest graile its walls, or stained
- With delicate streaks like marble veined,
- From brook-bank quarries drawn, fine-grained,
- And pure as alabaster.
-
- I dare not say how many a line
- It towered aloft, nor words are mine
- To tell what fancies Faery-fine
- Did hall and chamber garnish,
- All carpeted with hand-spun moss,
- Or laurel-leaf tight strained across,
- That flooring made of smoother gloss
- Than e’er had wax or varnish.
-
- With couch, and stool, and cushion strown
- Of ash-bud’s silk or thistle’s down;
- Their rugs, fluffed fells of field-mice brown,
- For tiger’s skin and panther’s.
- Their curtains came from spider-looms,
- Their walls were hung with moths’ soft plumes;
- Much gold-dust glittered thro’ the rooms,
- From stamens brushed and anthers.
-
- A midge-flight from the Palace gate,
- (Scroll-work of skeleton beech-leaf) straight
- A Fane they reared that matched in state
-
-[Illustration:
-
-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
-
- Famed Athens or Eleusis;
- Such beauty frieze and cornice lent,
- Entablature and pediment;
- In double row tall columns went
- Around it, as their use is.
-
- Each from one slab of rush’s pith
- Hewn, like majestic monolith,
- The architrave to prop, therewith
- The massy roof upholding.
- Indoors ’twas all adusk and chill;
- No Fay but felt a solemn thrill
- To pace its cloistered twilight still
- Mysterious glooms enfolding.
-
- Then from the brook with trenching spade
- Smooth dandelion tubes they laid,
- And hemlock pipes that bitter made
- The water thro’ them tasted;
- Hence, some fastidious Fays would go
- With acorn barrels to and fro,
- Till this the King forbade, lest so
- Their labour seem but wasted.
-
- Herein alone his fortune frowned:
- That in all Fayland was not found
- The fire-snake, lured from underground
- As even-dusk grows dimmer;
- This lacked, they did for lamp-posts choose
- Stout daisy-stems, and glowworms use,
- Chained there all night with knot and noose,
- To make a goodly glimmer.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-_Copyright by Macmillan & Co. 1894_]
-
- But who so fain as Oberon,
- That watched as every morn outshone
- His peerless city waxing on,
- While in its growth he gloried?
- Triumphant joy it gave the King
- To see each straw-plank scaffolding
- Pulled down piecemeal, as walls upspring,
- Wide-windowed, many-storied.
-
- And ever his stirring Elves amid
- He walked, and spied on all they did,
- And toilers praised, and idlers chid,
- With earnest speech and eager;
- Till, swift as blades in April-time
- Thro’ clod-cracks pricked, did skyward climb
- Roof crowding roof; whereof my rime
- Keeps but a record meagre.
-
- And now ye might, in sooth, have thought,
- Seeing all to such perfection wrought,
- That Fays might well repose have sought,
- From toil returned to pleasure.
- Howbeit, not so their King inclined,
- For fast as sped the works designed,
- Fresh plans were shapen in his mind,
- That wist not bound or measure.
-
- Oft as from Palace towers he eyed
- That spacious plain, as oft he sighed
- To see it planted far and wide
- With street-rows thick as stubble.
- Nor seldom flaws of wind and rain,
- Uplifting roof, and shattering pane,
- That needs must be restored again,
- Did Elfin labours double.
-
- Thus, by the malice of the skies,
- And tasks their King would still devise,
- The Fays beheld new toils arise
- To bar their hope of resting;
- As he who from the strand hath swum,
- While in his ear the surges hum,
- Sees evermore to meet him come
- White flocks of billows cresting.
-
- Which when at last they clearly knew,
- Deep discontent upon them grew,
- Till scarce a Fay did timber hew,
- Or piled up clay or pebble,
- Or hoisted load with strain and heft,
- Or grained a door with fingers deft
- And listless thoughts, but, hope-bereft,
- At heart was half a rebel.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- II.--THE COUNCIL
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
- So, after setting of a sun,
- When all their day’s long coil was done,
- And dew on gossamer-threads late-spun
- Beneath the moonbeams trembled,
- Called to a chosen meeting-place,
- Without the Town a frog-leap’s space,
- To talk about their evil case
- The Elfin folk assembled.
-
- ’Twas in good sooth a sight forlorn
- To see them fagged and labour-worn,
- Their dainty garments stained and torn,
- Forms bowed with weary stooping;
- Most like a bed of windflowers frail,
- What time a shower of pelting hail
- Hath smirched with mould the petals pale
- And left the bruised stalks drooping.
-
- And as when ruffling breeze-wafts go,
- Now sighing loud, now moaning low,
-
-[Illustration]
-
- Among the shivering blossoms, so
- Among the Elves upstarted
- A wail of voices small and shrill,
- That swelled and sank commingled, still
- Lamenting o’er their present ill
- Or ancient bliss departed.
-
- First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue
- Renowned his Faery feres among,
- Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,
- Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:
- “It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),
- “To bid you ’ware the direful dread,
- By gathering glooms and shadows spread,
- Wherewith our days are darkened.
-
- “But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er
- The eyes to blind and feet to snare,
- That else a path would find and fare
- From forth its grim embrasure,
- Behoves us seek from whence they flit,
- These shades that on our lives have lit,
- For so, perchance, a way we hit,
- Back to the beamy azure.
-
- “Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,
- Here let us pause and ask ourselves
- Why this one hews, why that one delves,
- Finch waking, chafer whirring.
- What graceless freak of spiteful change
- Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,
- Who wont down all the dells to range
- Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?
-
- “What joy have ye to cleave the clod,
- Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,
- Or down the creaking cart-track plod,
- Or up the ladder dizzy?
- Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,
- This piteous plight declares ye must
- Lament the charge upon you thrust
- That makes you bondslaves busy.
-
- “Where now be flown the mirthful hours
- Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?
- Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,
- Gay sports on greensward airy?
- Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,
- Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?
- Have these things now no more delights
- For heart of woodland Faery?
-
- “But if one saith: ‘The King commands
- This irksome service at our hands,
- And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,
- Lest traitorous act accuse him’--
- To such: The ancient laws (I say),
- Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,
- Point duly where we must obey,
- And where, unblamed, refuse him.
-
- “Since for this cause we crowned his head:
- That long as Elfin sports be sped,
- He still should rule the maze we tread,
- When every Faery traces
- On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;
- Even as the planet lamps that swing
- In shimmering cirques around _their_ King,
- Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.
-
- “Hence, if for us he prove indeed
- No sun-bright orb our step to lead,
- But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,
- That traveller’s foot betrayeth,
- Shall we our lightsome paths forsake
- Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,
- Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,
- Lured as his false gleam playeth?
-
- “Yea, of the King I ask: To thee
- Were given for lieges Faeries free,
- Or creeping things whose toil we see
- By niggard Nature spurred on?
- They twist the thread, they store the grain,
- And thus, at least, their portion gain;
- Whilst us thou biddest to struggles vain
- That win nor gift nor guerdon.
-
- “Yet, furthermore, and haply first
- In import grave: some spell accurst,
- Methinks, this troublous toiler’s-thirst
- Thus in our King sets burning;
- For I long since have deemed to mark
- Flash from his eye a fitful spark,
- Enkindled by those sorceries dark
- That steal the wits’ discerning.
-
- “How else should he, who erst had known
- Fair mansions in fresh flower-buds blown,
- His dwelling choose of stock and stone,
- Coarse clay, and cobweb flimsy?
- Yon piles uncouth, whereon we have wrought
- Thro’ weary workdays, seem they aught
- Save folly planned by one distraught
- With some fantastic whimsy?
-
- “Now, by the Night-bat’s shriek! full loth
- Were I to slight my deep-sworn oath,
- Or hear it said that I for sloth
- Mine owed allegiance scanted;
- But, tho’ I bide such slanders ill,
- I less could brook the Fay-folk still
- Enslaved to work the warlock’s will
- Who hath our King enchanted.”
-
- Thus he; and thro’ his hearers went
- Deep murmurs, as when hearts assent
- To words that voice their discontent,
- Long felt but lowly muttered.
- And Elfdore from among them next
- Arose, his gentle spirit vext,
- And much with jarring griefs perplext,
- As mournful speech he uttered:
-
- “Ay me, what stinging thoughts awoke
- Like ray-warmed flies, while Elfrain spoke,
- And told the wrongs of Faery-folk,
- And sorer ills that threat them;
- And, keenlier thrilling, called to mind
- Those days ere yet our bliss declined--
- Lost days, tho’ far they lag behind,
- What Elf can once forget them?
-
- “Your heaviest task to plot some prank,
- Your dullest hour blithe pastimes shrank;
- With sun that rose, and sun that sank,
- No Faery’s gladness vanished.
- But very vainly lend I speech
- To loud-voiced woes; this truth can teach,
- In few, what dismal tracts we reach,
- From former weal far-banished:
-
- “That, when our green-ywimpled wood,
- Like moss-rose reddening thro’ her hood,
- Lets vermeil dawn a path make good
- Where many a dim shade drowseth,
- No more, as once, its burgeoning light
- Seems flower-soft balm to Elfin sight,
- But signal-fire that weary wight
- To loathëd labour rouseth.
-
- “And when the West’s curved crystalline
- Pales, over-brimmed with silvern shine,
- Pure water poured where blush-tinct wine
- The rubied rim was crowning,
- Naught heeding save our hardship’s case,
- We only sigh: ‘Ebb, light, apace,
- And leave our cares a little space
- In dreamless slumber drowning.’
-
- “Then, since, of Elfin frolic stripped,
- In slavish bonds our days are clipped,
- Scarce save in sleep-whelmed pauses slipped,
- Blank silence, whither fleeing
- From senses’ dole to senses’ dearth
- We respite seek--holds life its worth?
- What joy were minished on the earth
- If Faeries ceased from being?
-
-[Illustration:
-
-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
-
- “And not on you alone this yoke
- Of bondage falls; an humbler folk
- May rue the hour when trowel’s stroke
- First tinkled clinking yonder;
- Our fellow-wights of feature quaint,
- Now captived, maugre plea and plaint,
- To drudge for us; whose harsh constraint
- I oft remorseful ponder.
-
- “My heart grows hot when yearnings vain
- Dumb in the draught-ant’s eyes speak plain,
- For comrades’ blithesome bustle fain,
- Amid their garnered treasure.
- And ruth and wrath will thro’ me throb
- To hear the unsightly Spider sob,
- When from her loom the weft we rob,
- Wove with such pride and pleasure.
-
- “And still when harnessed Snail or Slug
- I watch the hated wain-load tug,
- Or Beetle gross down ruts deep-dug
- Hath past me, panting, lumbered,
- Reproachful twinges wring my mind,
- For so we twofold burdens bind
- On creatures whom, thro’ Fate unkind,
- Unwieldy frames have cumbered.
-
- “Yet, if, irate at wrongs of these,
- To rebel thoughts I turn for ease,
- I fare as foot that nettle flees,
- But which barbed thistle lameth;
- So shrewd a thorn-pang pierced my breast
- What time I heard an Elf suggest
- That Fays should scorn their King’s behest
- Since overmuch he claimeth.
-
- “For, tho’ mine ire mount ne’er so high,
- Let Oberon but anon draw nigh
- With joyful mien and sparkling eye,
- Our bootless tasks admiring,
- And, doubting naught of hearers glad,
- Begin to tell new projects mad--
- Tall towers to raise, long rows to add,
- All Elfland’s strength requiring,
-
- “Then, wistful, pause my face to scan
- And read approval of his plan
- Trow, if for very ruth I can
- There brook him vainly seek it.
- Nay, if I knew one word whose might
- Could all his hopes forbid and blight,
- Loose Elfdom’s chains, and crush his sprite,
- In truth ’twere hard to speak it.
-
- “But for the cause that Elfrain deems
- Hath crazed the King with waking dreams,
- A Wizard, who our ruin schemes
- With arts beyond our foiling;
- So fell a thought I dare not think
- That leadeth to a misery’s brink,
- Wherefrom my frighted fancies shrink
- In anguish back recoiling.
-
- “Our case my counsel mocks. I rede
- We Elfmel call, and straitly heed
- The word he speaks; for if, indeed,
- Dark Fate, a cure thou shroudest,
- His wisdom shall that cure surprise.”
- Then all around rang eager cries:
- “Let Elfmel speak--let him advise”--
- And he, at clamour’s loudest,
- Stood forth upon the beechen stage;
- Not old, for Faeries know not age,
- But past his peers reputed sage,
- Such fame his wit achieveth;
- True to the mark his winged words went,
- Sure as a well-poised arrow sent,
- Yet clear to show their thought’s intent
- As air that arrow cleaveth:
-
- “Lo, Elfrain’s guess, and Elfdore’s dread,
- I long have known for truth” (he said);
- “No mortal guile the snare hath spread
- Where Oberon lies entangled;
- Nor lives who thus awry could twitch
- His sense, or fool to such a pitch,
- Save one alone, the Bad Brown Witch.
- Aye plotting ills new-fangled.
-
- “And, wot ye well, if aught avail
- To countercharm her magic’s bale,
- Whose mischief sore we so bewail,
- Plunged in this dire quandáry,
- ’Tis aid no mortal power can lend;
- One only may her marring mend--
- The Good Gray Witch, a faithful friend
- Oft proved to folk of Faery.
-
- “Yet, he who would her pity awake,
- A perilous path must undertake,
- For far beside her Lonesome Lake
- A slumbrous trance hath bound her,
- Where evermore a silence deep,
- Like trusty sentinel, must keep
- Mute watch to guard the sevenfold sleep
- That laps its dreams around her.
-
- “The first fold shade or shine ne’er crossed;
- Beyond the next each sound fails lost;
- The third fends off both fire and frost,
- How fierce so e’er their noyance;
- The fourth shrouds safe from fear and fret;
- The fifth bars memory and regret;
- Keen ire and scorn the sixth can let,
- The seventh all hope and joyance.
-
- “Still may her helpful might be sought,
- Still may her ruthful heart be raught,
- Albeit by steps with peril fraught,
- Down dim paths danger-ridden;
- Yea, long-conned mage-lore yields me arms
- Can pierce her sleep; right awesome charms,
- That, save for cure of grievous harms,
- To utter I am forbidden.
-
- “And erst deemed I that haply soon,
- As film-flakes floating by the moon
- Steeped in her frosted fire-flood swoon,
- And one brief moment dim it,
- Even so from us our cares might drift
- Fleeting and fading soft and swift;
- But nay; their pall shows never a rift,
- Their shade-sweep never a limit.
-
- “And therefore now, ye Fays, I feel
- ’Tis time to her we make appeal
- For help that Oberon’s hurt shall heal,
- And lure him from his madness;
- And list ye on this mission trust
- My zeal and truth, her power august
- Will I beseech, till yield it must
- A boon to work us gladness.”
-
- Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops
- To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,
- The voice of clustering Elfin groups
- Rose up, his speech approving;
- And cried that in such embassage
- No worthier Elf could e’er engage;
- And bade him speed the task whose wage
- Should be their woe’s removing.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- III.--THE FLITTING
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
- Hence, when the dawn looked dewiest,
- Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,
- Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,
- While still the King lay dreaming;
- But--since his se’ennight’s peril dared
- Were long to tell--he home repaired
- When Elfintown at sunset flared,
- With roofs and windows gleaming.
-
- He came, in sooth, at time of need,
- Because the King had just decreed
- A task that should all tasks exceed
- Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:
- A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,
- Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,
- And even the loftiest plantain-spike
- Peer in prodigious pride o’er.
-
- Not empty-handed Elfmel came:
- A mirror wan in dark-wove frame
- The Witch had sent, and o’er the same
- Breathed many a murmur mystic;
- In size it matched the rain-drop pearled
- At broadest blade-point; round it curled
- Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled
- With sentence Kabalistic.
-
- The which, if hung ere fall of night
- Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight
- Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,
- Would show him such a vision
- As must his frenzy scare away:
- “Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”
- Quoth she; yet more she would not say,
- But sped the Elf on his mission.
-
- This Elfmel did anon relate
- To his comrades, met in grave debate,
- Who joyed to learn their evil estate
- Might now eftsoons be mended.
- And twain in haste by secret stair
- To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,
- What time he bode all unaware
- Of aught his Elves intended.
-
- Methinks when dimness round them closed,
- The weariest Fay but seldom dozed,
- For new-blown glee with morn-flush rosed
- The drift of night’s pale lily;
- Or hope and fear, like boisterous breeze
- Whereon the fluttering petal flees,
- Frayed sleep, that loves on hearts at ease
- To light and linger stilly.
-
-[Illustration]
-
- Some soft as drowsy finches sung:
- “Oh sweet, ye Fays, our lawns among
- To fleet fair days, from dawn’s flame sprung
- Till night star-bright,” they twittered;
- While others kept a mien more grave,
- For somewhat still their minds misgave
- That care so blithe an end should have
- Which long their lives embittered.
-
- But all, thro’ hopes and fears, watched fain
- To see red light the east distain,
- That Oberon should rouse again
- From slumbers gramarie-haunted;
- For then they must behold a sign
- If verily to that spell benign
- The Bad Brown Witch’s power malign
- Had yielded, quelled and daunted.
-
- And ’mid the mists of morning-tide
- Thronged to the Palace court they hied;
- And, lo, the massy door flung wide,
- And Oberon thro’ it pacing.
- Sad was his look, as if he grieved
- Of long-deluding hope bereaved,
- Or fairest myth, too much believed,
- Truth-touched with finger effacing.
-
- Forth paced he to as mute a hush
- As falls upon the twittering bush
- Whence titmice watch the missel-thrush,
- Their motley tyrant, coming;
- For never a Fay durst move, in fear
- Lest haply so should fail his ear
- The words he held his breath to hear
- Above his heart’s thick drumming.
-
- Nor any sound from earth or sky
- That silence flawed, save if thereby
- A restive Earwig, stalled anigh,
- Stamped foot and tugged at tether;
- Or shrilled a sharper note than that
- Where overhead a gaunt-limbed Gnat,
- Perched on a neighbouring roof-ridge, sat
- And twirled lean legs together.
-
- “Strange tidings unto you I bring,
- My faithful Fays,” so spake the King
- “For in this night a wondrous thing
- Was shown me as I slumbered;
- A wondrous thing and piteous both,
- For against itself my heart grows wroth
- To think how I have abused your troth,
- And worked you woes unnumbered.
-
- “Yea, bitter ’tis, since now my brain
- No longer reels thro’ sorcery’s bane,
- To trace these tracks of labour vain,
- This witless work to gaze on;
- Yon cumbrous heaps of stones and stocks
- Seem filled for me with flouts and mocks,
- As if all round on boards and blocks
- I read my folly’s blazon.
-
- “Yet bitterer far to feel the while
- That every huge-erected pile
- Rose inch by inch with drudgery vile
- From Elfin race exacted.
- And who your freedom’s traitorous thief?
- Ah, who but I, your chosen chief?
- Nay, think not I, but frenzy brief
- Of mind with charms distracted.
-
- “And now the night-sent sign, that snaps
- This witch-knot black, the mist unwraps
- Wherein Fate hid our future haps,
- And me its portent teacheth
- ’Tis fit that yet one further task
- I of your tried allegiance ask--
- I truly; ’tis no warlock’s mask
- That here your aid beseecheth:
-
- “I charge you that forthright ye haste
- To lay this cursëd city waste;
- Let wall be breached, and site erased,
- Pluck down both roof and rafter;
- Leave not a stone on stone to stand;
- Ne’er shall your monarch, by this hand!
- Of Faery folk such toils demand
- In all the ages after.”
-
- Thereat uprose a jubilant shout
- From all who hearkened round about,
- For so they knew beyond a doubt
- King Oberon’s craze departed.
- “Swift be the King’s command obeyed,
- Then hence” (they cried), “to greenwood glade,
- Where Elves, as liked them best estrayed,
- Whilom have ranged light-hearted.”
-
- But Oberon, still of mien deject,
- Their strain exultant heard and checked
- With lifted palm and pale aspect,
- That motioned silence thro’ them.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
-
- “Not so,” spake he in accents grave,
- “No more for us the deep woods wave,
- Tho’ dear the home their greenery gave,
- Tho’ long our hearts may rue them;
-
- “Tho’ fain were I, if this might be,
- Down yon cool shades all care to flee,
- And very fain would watch your glee
- Wax as in good days golden--
- For, lo, the dream, whose power undid
- That ill witch-charm, a secret hid,
- Which hath, while fouler harm it rid,
- So fair a hope withholden.
-
- “Mark well, ye Fays: In years long fled,
- When Earthland first felt Elfin tread--
- But whence, or how, or why we sped,
- I wot our wisest knows not--
- The Fate who did our journeyings guide
- Ne’er destined that, whate’er betide,
- This ball must aye our dwelling bide,
- A prison whose doors unclose not.
-
- “That weird-night’s vision warns me so--
- Had meshed us soon in webs of woe,
- Whence Fate hath willed we free should go,
- Long since to me confiding
- The word whereby, if need befal,
- Aërial chariots I may call,
- Mage-fashioned, meet to waft us all
- Up ways heaven’s vault dividing.
-
- “Yet here so long, so blithe, we dwelled,
- So dear our haunts by flood and feld,
- That evermore I hoped and held
- Such word need ne’er be spoken,
- Now from me wrung by darkening doom,
- As menace-murk of thunder-gloom
- Bids shun hurled bolt and bellowing boom
- Ere yet the storm hath broken.
-
- “No plainer speech my lips dare frame;
- But, soothly, had ye seen the same,
- Each idle moment would ye blame
- That us from flight doth sever,
- Not loitering o’er what rests to do
- Ere hence we float up yonder blue,
- Self-exiled from the paths we knew--
- For ever and for ever.”
-
- I trow that every Fay who heard
- Was grieved at heart by Oberon’s word,
- Yet none lamented, none demurred,
- Or against his will besought him;
- For in his steadfast-mournful eyne
- They could some fatal truth divine,
- Tho’ none might know what boding sign
- To stern resolve had wrought him.
-
- And ’tis a riddle still ungues’t
- What vision from that mirror’s breast
- Was flashed athwart King Oberon’s rest,
- So filled with fear and wonder.
- Some say that unto him were shown
- Days when round earth, once green and lone,
- Shall whirl with cities all o’ergrown,
- No Elf-ring’s circle asunder;
- And say he saw or ever he woke
- High heaven blurred out with riftless smoke,
- Where men ground down ’neath labour’s yoke
- Toil to the mad wheel’s thunder;
- World weeded o’er from prime to prime
- With want, and woe, and care, and crime,
- Unmeet to tell in Faery rime,
- That halts such burden under.
-
- Howbeit, the Elves in eager crowd
- Made haste to raze those mansions proud;
- Anon the rill-cliffs echoed loud
- To crash of timbers falling,
- As toppling towers at onslaught rude
- Reeled down in wrack, and street-rows strewed
- Their swift-wrought ruin, whence captives shrewd
- Slipped homeward, warily crawling.
-
- Till soon, if wanderer chanced to fare
- Across that earth-patch smooth and bare,
- He spied no Elfin doings there,
- And only heard a rustle
- Where shrivelled leaves their serest brown
- Thro’ Autumn mists had drifted down.
- This was the end of Elfintown,
- Built with such coil and bustle.
-
- Then Oberon spake the word of might
- That set the enchanted cars in sight;
- But lore I lack to tell aright
-
-[Illustration:
-
-_Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co._]
-
- Where these had waited hidden.
- Perchance the clear airs round us rolled
- In secret cells did them enfold,
- Like evening dew that none behold
- Till to the sward ’tis slidden.
-
- And who can say what wizardise
- Had fashioned them in marvellous wise,
- And given them power to stoop and rise
- More high than thought hath travelled?
- Somewhat of cloud their frames consist,
- But more of meteor’s luminous mist,
- All girt with strands of seven-hued twist
- From rainbow’s verge unravelled.
-
- ’Tis said, and I believe it well,
- That whoso mounts their magic sell,
- Goes, if he list, invisible
- Beneath the broadest noonlight;
- That virtue comes of Faery-fern,
- Lone-lived where hill-slopes starward turn
- Thro’ frore night hours that bid it burn
- Flame-fronded in the moonlight;
-
- For this holds true--too true, alas!--
- The sky that eve was clear as glass,
- Yet no man saw the Faeries pass
- Where azure pathways glisten;
- And true it is--too true, ay me--
- That nevermore on lawn or lea
- Shall mortal man a Faery see,
- Tho’ long he look and listen.
-
- Only the twilit woods among
- A wild-winged breeze hath sometimes flung
- Dim echoes borne from strains soft-sung
- Beyond sky-reaches hollow;
- Still further, fainter up the height,
- Receding past the deep-zoned night--
- Far chant of Fays who lead that flight,
- Faint call of Fays who follow:
-
- (_Fays following._) Red-rose mists o’erdrift
- Moth-moon’s glimmering white,
- Lit by sheen-silled west
- Barred with fiery bar;
- Fleeting, following swift,
- Whither across the night
- Seek we bourne of rest?
- (_Fays leading._) Afar.
-
- (_Fays following._) Vailing crest on crest
- Down the shadowy height,
- Earth with shores and seas
- Dropt, a dwindling gleam.
- Dusk, and bowery nest,
- Dawn, and dells dew-bright,
- What shall bide of these?
- (_Fays leading._) A dream.
-
- (_Fays following._) Fled, ah fled, our sight.
- Yea, but thrills of fire
- Throbbed adown yon deep,
- Faint and very far
- Who shall rede aright?
- Say, what wafts us nigher,
- Beckoning up the steep?
- (_Fays leading._) A star.
-
- (_Fays following._) List, a star! a star!
- Oh, our goal of light!
- Yet the winged shades sweep,
- Yet the void looms vast.
- Weary our wild dreams are:
- When shall cease our flight
- Soft on shores of sleep?
- (_Fays leading._) At last.
-
- [Illustration]
-
- [Illustration]
-
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-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The End of Elfintown, by Jane Barlow</p>
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-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
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-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The End of Elfintown</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Jane Barlow</p>
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Laurence Housman</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 20, 2022 [eBook #67883]</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
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-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF ELFINTOWN ***</div>
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<a href="images/cover.jpg">
-<img src="images/cover.jpg" height="500" alt="[The
-image of the book's cover is unavailable.]" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<table cellpadding="0">
-<tr><td class="c" colspan="3"><b>CONTENTS</b></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="r"><a href="#I_THE_BUILDING">I.</a></td><td><a href="#I_THE_BUILDING">&mdash;THE BUILDING</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="r"><a href="#II_THE_COUNCIL">II.</a></td><td><a href="#II_THE_COUNCIL">&mdash;THE COUNCIL</a></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="r"><a href="#III_THE_FLITTING">III.</a></td><td><a href="#III_THE_FLITTING">&mdash;THE FLITTING</a></td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 390px;">
-<a href="images/titlepage.jpg">
-<img src="images/titlepage.jpg" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h1>THE END OF<br />
-ELFINTOWN</h1>
-
-<p class="c"><small>BY</small><br />
-JANE BARLOW<br />
-<small>ILLUSTRATED BY</small><br />
-LAURENCE HOUSMAN<br /><br />
-LONDON<br />
-MACMILLAN &amp; CO.<br />
-1894
-</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_1" id="page_1">{1}</a></span></p>
-
-<h2><a name="I_THE_BUILDING" id="I_THE_BUILDING"></a></h2>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 316px;">
-<a href="images/image001.jpg">
-<img src="images/image001.jpg" width="316" height="400" alt="I.&mdash;THE BUILDING" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Now</span> would that he who knew so well<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of fierce Pigwiggin’s armour fell,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And angered Oberon’s wrath, to tell,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And how their feud was ended,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_2" id="page_2">{2}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yea, would that he, ere hence he sped,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Had writ in gold, as I in lead,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For men to learn why Fays be fled,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And whitherward they wended.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">It hapt in ages far agone<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A harmful spell was cast upon<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That Elfin King, great Oberon,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And teen and trouble brought him;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And albeit none can track the skill<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That wove the charm full-fraught with ill,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">We wot the Bad Brown Witch’s will<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Such perilous mischief wrought him.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">For she by magic showed him clear,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In mirroring crystal of her mere,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A wondrous Town; ’twas many a year<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_3" id="page_3">{3}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ere yet its like were builded;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But thro’ her might of gramarie<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">She made the Elfin Prince to see<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The grandest that on earth should be,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And most by wealth-wand gilded.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">’Twas shrunk, I trow, to seemly size<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For straiter range of Elfin eyes,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But else it had its mortal guise,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No sight, no stir omitted,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With tower and temple, and mart and street,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And prison and palace, all complete,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And whirr of wheels, and hurry of feet<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That hither thither flitted.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Whereon the King much-marvelling gazed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_4" id="page_4">{4}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Admiring more, and more amazed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Till, when the Witch its image razed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Still in his heart it tarried,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">(A secret that he might not tell),<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And home unto his woodland dell<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That city’s vision, like a spell,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">O’er all his thoughts he carried.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And since that day he dwelled no more<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In joyance blithe as theretofore,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But sadly aye himself he bore<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Amid the sunniest shining;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nor quivering beam, nor fluttering breeze,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nor flickering shade, his sense could please;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He dreamed of rarer things than these,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And for their lack was pining.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_5" id="page_5">{5}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">From harebell’s tent to bindweed’s hall,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From cup-moss low to foxglove tall,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He shifted oft his couch withal,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yet still would chide his chamber,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And said the glowworm-lamps burned dim,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And slurred the dew at rose-bud’s rim;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The kingcup’s gold looked dull to him,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And cowslip’s gawds of amber.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Hence, on his discontents to brood,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He sat one eve in sorry mood,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">While whispering Elves around him stood,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And said ’twas strange, ’twas pity;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When, sudden, light as leaf on spray,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He leaped and laughed: “By Flowers o’ May,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Mine Elves,” quoth he, “our own essay<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_6" id="page_6">{6}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Shall build as fair a city.”<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And eagerly at morrow’s light<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He hasted forth to choose a site,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whereon should now be reared aright<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Strong walls and storeys stately.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He found it soon: an earth-plot bare<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Beyond an elm’s droop; six yards square;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No sod, no moss, no weed, throve there,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Which pleased King Oberon greatly.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“For thro’ those streets,” said he, “was seen<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No blade of grass, or glint of green,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But pavements ferly smooth and clean;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Small fear of footsteps tripping.”<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Not far away a brook bobbed by:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_7" id="page_7">{7}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“From thence,” he said, “we may supply<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Our waterworks; and soothly I<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Grow weary of dew-drop sipping.”<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Then hied him home amain, and shook<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">His drowsy Fays from every nook,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And bade them follow with him, and look<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where splendour should be springing;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And ere the earliest star blinked down<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Upon that earth-patch bare and brown,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The first white pebble of Elfintown<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He laid ’mid cheers loud-ringing.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">And now, indeed, industrious days<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Be risen upon the land of Fays,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where every liege his Lord obeys,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_8" id="page_8">{8}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And toils beside his neighbour.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">They plied them late, they plied them soon,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In dew of dawn, thro’ drowth of noon,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nay, oft the wan light of a moon<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Swam in to lamp their labour.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">No more round Faery-ring they swept<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In mazy measures ere they slept;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But, silent, to his lair each crept,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Limb wearied, sinews aching.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No more they couched in campion’s cell,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or slumbered soft in lily-bell;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Prone on the ground they flung pell-mell,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Brief rest from task-work taking.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Some kneaded stubborn clay for bricks,<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_9" id="page_9">{9}</a></span></div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 423px;">
-<a href="images/image009.jpg">
-<img src="images/image009.jpg" width="423" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-<div class="caption">
-
-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_10" id="page_10">{10}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_11" id="page_11">{11}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">With shells’ jagged splints some sawed at sticks,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Some delved the soil with brier-thorn picks<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To helves of flax-haulm fitted;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">On business more than one can name<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From dawn to dusk they went and came;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">None durst his share refuse for shame,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nor would with sloth be twitted.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And brutish things, that creep and crawl<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Stingless and strong, they did enthrall<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To burdens bear, and pull and haul,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Along the highways goaded;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">There might ye see the Beetle black<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Come lumbering down the dusty track,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With pebble-blocks piled on his back,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or mossy twig-beams loaded.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_12" id="page_12">{12}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And oft they ponderous weights would heap<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">On slow-paced Slugs, who, half-asleep,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For many a tedious yard must creep,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their drivers by them trudging;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Even nimbler Ants they made submit<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To bridle and curb of cobweb knit,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Unruly teams, that plunged and bit,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Against the yoke sore grudging.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Thus, sped by toil of serf and Fay,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The work lagged nowise; day by day<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">New mansions rose in rich array<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Beside the paven causey;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their like was ne’er in Elfland known,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Some built of brick, and some of stone,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And roofed with mica slabs that shone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_13" id="page_13">{13}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And glazed with gnat-wings gauzy.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">But, fairest amongst all these descried,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Stood in the middle edified<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The Palace where the King should bide,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Well worthy a royal master;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of whitest graile its walls, or stained<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With delicate streaks like marble veined,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From brook-bank quarries drawn, fine-grained,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And pure as alabaster.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">I dare not say how many a line<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">It towered aloft, nor words are mine<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To tell what fancies Faery-fine<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Did hall and chamber garnish,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">All carpeted with hand-spun moss,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or laurel-leaf tight strained across,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_14" id="page_14">{14}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That flooring made of smoother gloss<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Than e’er had wax or varnish.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">With couch, and stool, and cushion strown<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of ash-bud’s silk or thistle’s down;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their rugs, fluffed fells of field-mice brown,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For tiger’s skin and panther’s.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their curtains came from spider-looms,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their walls were hung with moths’ soft plumes;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Much gold-dust glittered thro’ the rooms,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From stamens brushed and anthers.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">A midge-flight from the Palace gate,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">(Scroll-work of skeleton beech-leaf) straight<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A Fane they reared that matched in state<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_15" id="page_15">{15}</a></span></div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;">
-<a href="images/image015.jpg">
-<img src="images/image015.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-<div class="caption">
-
-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_16" id="page_16">{16}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_17" id="page_17">{17}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Famed Athens or Eleusis;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Such beauty frieze and cornice lent,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Entablature and pediment;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In double row tall columns went<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Around it, as their use is.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Each from one slab of rush’s pith<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hewn, like majestic monolith,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The architrave to prop, therewith<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The massy roof upholding.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Indoors ’twas all adusk and chill;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No Fay but felt a solemn thrill<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To pace its cloistered twilight still<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Mysterious glooms enfolding.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Then from the brook with trenching spade<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_18" id="page_18">{18}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Smooth dandelion tubes they laid,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And hemlock pipes that bitter made<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The water thro’ them tasted;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hence, some fastidious Fays would go<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With acorn barrels to and fro,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Till this the King forbade, lest so<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their labour seem but wasted.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Herein alone his fortune frowned:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That in all Fayland was not found<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The fire-snake, lured from underground<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As even-dusk grows dimmer;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This lacked, they did for lamp-posts choose<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Stout daisy-stems, and glowworms use,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Chained there all night with knot and noose,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To make a goodly glimmer.<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_20" id="page_20">{20}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_19" id="page_19">{19}</a></span></div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
-<a href="images/image020.jpg">
-<img src="images/image020.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-<div class="caption">
-
-<p><i>Copyright by Macmillan &amp; Co. 1894</i></p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_21" id="page_21">{21}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">But who so fain as Oberon,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That watched as every morn outshone<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">His peerless city waxing on,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">While in its growth he gloried?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Triumphant joy it gave the King<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To see each straw-plank scaffolding<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Pulled down piecemeal, as walls upspring,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wide-windowed, many-storied.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And ever his stirring Elves amid<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He walked, and spied on all they did,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And toilers praised, and idlers chid,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With earnest speech and eager;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Till, swift as blades in April-time<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thro’ clod-cracks pricked, did skyward climb<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Roof crowding roof; whereof my rime<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Keeps but a record meagre.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_22" id="page_22">{22}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">And now ye might, in sooth, have thought,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Seeing all to such perfection wrought,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That Fays might well repose have sought,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From toil returned to pleasure.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Howbeit, not so their King inclined,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For fast as sped the works designed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Fresh plans were shapen in his mind,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That wist not bound or measure.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Oft as from Palace towers he eyed<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That spacious plain, as oft he sighed<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To see it planted far and wide<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With street-rows thick as stubble.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nor seldom flaws of wind and rain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Uplifting roof, and shattering pane,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That needs must be restored again,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_23" id="page_23">{23}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Did Elfin labours double.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Thus, by the malice of the skies,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And tasks their King would still devise,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The Fays beheld new toils arise<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To bar their hope of resting;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As he who from the strand hath swum,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">While in his ear the surges hum,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Sees evermore to meet him come<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">White flocks of billows cresting.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Which when at last they clearly knew,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Deep discontent upon them grew,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Till scarce a Fay did timber hew,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or piled up clay or pebble,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or hoisted load with strain and heft,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or grained a door with fingers deft<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_24" id="page_24">{24}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And listless thoughts, but, hope-bereft,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">At heart was half a rebel.<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 216px;">
-<a href="images/image024.jpg">
-<img src="images/image024.jpg" width="216" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_25" id="page_25">{25}</a></span></p>
-
-<h2><a name="II_THE_COUNCIL" id="II_THE_COUNCIL"></a></h2>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;">
-<a href="images/image025.jpg">
-<img src="images/image025.jpg" width="258" height="400" alt="II.&mdash;THE COUNCIL" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">So</span>, after setting of a sun,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When all their day’s long coil was done,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And dew on gossamer-threads late-spun<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_26" id="page_26">{26}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Beneath the moonbeams trembled,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Called to a chosen meeting-place,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Without the Town a frog-leap’s space,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To talk about their evil case<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The Elfin folk assembled.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">’Twas in good sooth a sight forlorn<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To see them fagged and labour-worn,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their dainty garments stained and torn,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Forms bowed with weary stooping;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Most like a bed of windflowers frail,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">What time a shower of pelting hail<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hath smirched with mould the petals pale<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And left the bruised stalks drooping.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And as when ruffling breeze-wafts go,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Now sighing loud, now moaning low,<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_28" id="page_28">{28}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_27" id="page_27">{27}</a></span></div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;">
-<a href="images/image028.jpg">
-<img src="images/image028.jpg" width="427" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_29" id="page_29">{29}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Among the shivering blossoms, so<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Among the Elves upstarted<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A wail of voices small and shrill,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That swelled and sank commingled, still<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lamenting o’er their present ill<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or ancient bliss departed.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">First Elfrain, for his silvern tongue<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Renowned his Faery feres among,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Upon a fallen beech-nut sprung,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Spake clear, while hushed they hearkened:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“It little needs, ye Elves” (he said),<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“To bid you ’ware the direful dread,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">By gathering glooms and shadows spread,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wherewith our days are darkened.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“But, since a shadow’s curse is e’er<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_30" id="page_30">{30}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The eyes to blind and feet to snare,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That else a path would find and fare<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From forth its grim embrasure,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Behoves us seek from whence they flit,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">These shades that on our lives have lit,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For so, perchance, a way we hit,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Back to the beamy azure.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Then, prithee, freeborn Fays and Elves,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Here let us pause and ask ourselves<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Why this one hews, why that one delves,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Finch waking, chafer whirring.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">What graceless freak of spiteful change<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hath o’er us wound these fetters strange,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Who wont down all the dells to range<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Unchecked as breeze’s stirring?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_31" id="page_31">{31}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“What joy have ye to cleave the clod,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or mortar bear in chickpea hod,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or down the creaking cart-track plod,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or up the ladder dizzy?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nay, daubed with clay, and grimed with dust,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This piteous plight declares ye must<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lament the charge upon you thrust<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That makes you bondslaves busy.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Where now be flown the mirthful hours<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ye fleeted by in blossomy bowers?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Soft sleep at core of scented flowers,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Gay sports on greensward airy?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Why fail your feasts, why flag your flights,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Your morrice-dance on moonlit nights?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Have these things now no more delights<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_32" id="page_32">{32}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For heart of woodland Faery?<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“But if one saith: ‘The King commands<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This irksome service at our hands,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And Oberon’s will no Fay withstands,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lest traitorous act accuse him’&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To such: The ancient laws (I say),<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thro’ which our monarch holds his sway,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Point duly where we must obey,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And where, unblamed, refuse him.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Since for this cause we crowned his head:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That long as Elfin sports be sped,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He still should rule the maze we tread,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When every Faery traces<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">On dew-sprent turf the emerald ring;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Even as the planet lamps that swing<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_33" id="page_33">{33}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In shimmering cirques around <i>their</i> King,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Far up heaven’s star-strown spaces.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Hence, if for us he prove indeed<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No sun-bright orb our step to lead,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But Jack-o’-lantern’s goblin glede,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That traveller’s foot betrayeth,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Shall we our lightsome paths forsake<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thro’ bogs to err and briery brake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where thorn-pricks thrust and quagmires quake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lured as his false gleam playeth?<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Yea, of the King I ask: To thee<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Were given for lieges Faeries free,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or creeping things whose toil we see<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">By niggard Nature spurred on?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_34" id="page_34">{34}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">They twist the thread, they store the grain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And thus, at least, their portion gain;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whilst us thou biddest to struggles vain<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That win nor gift nor guerdon.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Yet, furthermore, and haply first<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In import grave: some spell accurst,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Methinks, this troublous toiler’s-thirst<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thus in our King sets burning;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For I long since have deemed to mark<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Flash from his eye a fitful spark,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Enkindled by those sorceries dark<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That steal the wits’ discerning.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“How else should he, who erst had known<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Fair mansions in fresh flower-buds blown,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">His dwelling choose of stock and stone,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_35" id="page_35">{35}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Coarse clay, and cobweb flimsy?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yon piles uncouth, whereon we have wrought<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thro’ weary workdays, seem they aught<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Save folly planned by one distraught<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With some fantastic whimsy?<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Now, by the Night-bat’s shriek! full loth<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Were I to slight my deep-sworn oath,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or hear it said that I for sloth<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Mine owed allegiance scanted;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But, tho’ I bide such slanders ill,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I less could brook the Fay-folk still<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Enslaved to work the warlock’s will<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Who hath our King enchanted.”<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Thus he; and thro’ his hearers went<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Deep murmurs, as when hearts assent<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_36" id="page_36">{36}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To words that voice their discontent,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Long felt but lowly muttered.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And Elfdore from among them next<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Arose, his gentle spirit vext,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And much with jarring griefs perplext,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As mournful speech he uttered:<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Ay me, what stinging thoughts awoke<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Like ray-warmed flies, while Elfrain spoke,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And told the wrongs of Faery-folk,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And sorer ills that threat them;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And, keenlier thrilling, called to mind<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Those days ere yet our bliss declined&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lost days, tho’ far they lag behind,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">What Elf can once forget them?<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Your heaviest task to plot some prank,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_37" id="page_37">{37}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Your dullest hour blithe pastimes shrank;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With sun that rose, and sun that sank,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No Faery’s gladness vanished.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But very vainly lend I speech<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To loud-voiced woes; this truth can teach,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In few, what dismal tracts we reach,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From former weal far-banished:<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“That, when our green-ywimpled wood,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Like moss-rose reddening thro’ her hood,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lets vermeil dawn a path make good<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where many a dim shade drowseth,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No more, as once, its burgeoning light<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Seems flower-soft balm to Elfin sight,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But signal-fire that weary wight<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To loathëd labour rouseth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_38" id="page_38">{38}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“And when the West’s curved crystalline<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Pales, over-brimmed with silvern shine,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Pure water poured where blush-tinct wine<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The rubied rim was crowning,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Naught heeding save our hardship’s case,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">We only sigh: ‘Ebb, light, apace,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And leave our cares a little space<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In dreamless slumber drowning.’<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Then, since, of Elfin frolic stripped,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In slavish bonds our days are clipped,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Scarce save in sleep-whelmed pauses slipped,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Blank silence, whither fleeing<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From senses’ dole to senses’ dearth<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">We respite seek&mdash;holds life its worth?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">What joy were minished on the earth<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">If Faeries ceased from being?<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_39" id="page_39">{39}</a></span></div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 432px;">
-<a href="images/image039.jpg">
-<img src="images/image039.jpg" width="432" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-<div class="caption">
-
-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_40" id="page_40">{40}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_41" id="page_41">{41}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“And not on you alone this yoke<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of bondage falls; an humbler folk<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">May rue the hour when trowel’s stroke<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">First tinkled clinking yonder;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Our fellow-wights of feature quaint,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Now captived, maugre plea and plaint,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To drudge for us; whose harsh constraint<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I oft remorseful ponder.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“My heart grows hot when yearnings vain<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Dumb in the draught-ant’s eyes speak plain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For comrades’ blithesome bustle fain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Amid their garnered treasure.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And ruth and wrath will thro’ me throb<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To hear the unsightly Spider sob,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When from her loom the weft we rob,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wove with such pride and pleasure.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_42" id="page_42">{42}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“And still when harnessed Snail or Slug<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I watch the hated wain-load tug,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or Beetle gross down ruts deep-dug<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hath past me, panting, lumbered,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Reproachful twinges wring my mind,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For so we twofold burdens bind<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">On creatures whom, thro’ Fate unkind,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Unwieldy frames have cumbered.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Yet, if, irate at wrongs of these,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To rebel thoughts I turn for ease,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I fare as foot that nettle flees,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But which barbed thistle lameth;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">So shrewd a thorn-pang pierced my breast<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">What time I heard an Elf suggest<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That Fays should scorn their King’s behest<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Since overmuch he claimeth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_43" id="page_43">{43}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“For, tho’ mine ire mount ne’er so high,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Let Oberon but anon draw nigh<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With joyful mien and sparkling eye,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Our bootless tasks admiring,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And, doubting naught of hearers glad,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Begin to tell new projects mad&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Tall towers to raise, long rows to add,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">All Elfland’s strength requiring,<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Then, wistful, pause my face to scan<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And read approval of his plan<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Trow, if for very ruth I can<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">There brook him vainly seek it.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nay, if I knew one word whose might<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Could all his hopes forbid and blight,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Loose Elfdom’s chains, and crush his sprite,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In truth ’twere hard to speak it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_44" id="page_44">{44}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“But for the cause that Elfrain deems<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hath crazed the King with waking dreams,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A Wizard, who our ruin schemes<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With arts beyond our foiling;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">So fell a thought I dare not think<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That leadeth to a misery’s brink,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wherefrom my frighted fancies shrink<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In anguish back recoiling.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Our case my counsel mocks. I rede<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">We Elfmel call, and straitly heed<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The word he speaks; for if, indeed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Dark Fate, a cure thou shroudest,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">His wisdom shall that cure surprise.”<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Then all around rang eager cries:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“Let Elfmel speak&mdash;let him advise”&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And he, at clamour’s loudest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_45" id="page_45">{45}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Stood forth upon the beechen stage;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Not old, for Faeries know not age,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But past his peers reputed sage,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Such fame his wit achieveth;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">True to the mark his winged words went,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Sure as a well-poised arrow sent,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yet clear to show their thought’s intent<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As air that arrow cleaveth:<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Lo, Elfrain’s guess, and Elfdore’s dread,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I long have known for truth” (he said);<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“No mortal guile the snare hath spread<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where Oberon lies entangled;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nor lives who thus awry could twitch<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">His sense, or fool to such a pitch,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Save one alone, the Bad Brown Witch.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Aye plotting ills new-fangled.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_46" id="page_46">{46}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“And, wot ye well, if aught avail<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To countercharm her magic’s bale,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whose mischief sore we so bewail,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Plunged in this dire quandáry,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">’Tis aid no mortal power can lend;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">One only may her marring mend&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The Good Gray Witch, a faithful friend<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Oft proved to folk of Faery.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Yet, he who would her pity awake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A perilous path must undertake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For far beside her Lonesome Lake<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A slumbrous trance hath bound her,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where evermore a silence deep,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Like trusty sentinel, must keep<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Mute watch to guard the sevenfold sleep<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That laps its dreams around her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_47" id="page_47">{47}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“The first fold shade or shine ne’er crossed;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Beyond the next each sound fails lost;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The third fends off both fire and frost,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">How fierce so e’er their noyance;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The fourth shrouds safe from fear and fret;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The fifth bars memory and regret;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Keen ire and scorn the sixth can let,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The seventh all hope and joyance.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Still may her helpful might be sought,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Still may her ruthful heart be raught,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Albeit by steps with peril fraught,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Down dim paths danger-ridden;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yea, long-conned mage-lore yields me arms<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Can pierce her sleep; right awesome charms,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That, save for cure of grievous harms,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To utter I am forbidden.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_48" id="page_48">{48}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“And erst deemed I that haply soon,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As film-flakes floating by the moon<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Steeped in her frosted fire-flood swoon,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And one brief moment dim it,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Even so from us our cares might drift<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Fleeting and fading soft and swift;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But nay; their pall shows never a rift,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their shade-sweep never a limit.<br /></span>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“And therefore now, ye Fays, I feel<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">’Tis time to her we make appeal<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For help that Oberon’s hurt shall heal,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And lure him from his madness;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And list ye on this mission trust<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">My zeal and truth, her power august<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Will I beseech, till yield it must<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A boon to work us gladness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_49" id="page_49">{49}</a></span>”<br /></span>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<div class="figright" style="width: 213px;">
-<a href="images/image049.jpg">
-<img src="images/image049.jpg" width="213" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Then, like the hum as poised bee swoops<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To gold-domed gloom where flower-bell droops,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The voice of clustering Elfin groups<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Rose up, his speech approving;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And cried that in such embassage<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No worthier Elf could e’er engage;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And bade him speed the task whose wage<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Should be their woe’s removing.<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_50" id="page_50">{50}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_51" id="page_51">{51}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<h2><a name="III_THE_FLITTING" id="III_THE_FLITTING"></a></h2>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 283px;">
-<a href="images/image051.jpg">
-<img src="images/image051.jpg" width="283" height="400" alt="III.&mdash;THE FLITTING" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hence</span>, when the dawn looked dewiest,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Forth Elfmel fared on fateful quest,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Alone, so ran the charm’s behest,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_52" id="page_52">{52}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">While still the King lay dreaming;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But&mdash;since his se’ennight’s peril dared<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Were long to tell&mdash;he home repaired<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When Elfintown at sunset flared,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With roofs and windows gleaming.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">He came, in sooth, at time of need,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Because the King had just decreed<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A task that should all tasks exceed<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Which yet the Fays had sighed o’er:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A monstrous tower, ne’er seen its like,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whose crest should seem the clouds to strike,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And even the loftiest plantain-spike<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Peer in prodigious pride o’er.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Not empty-handed Elfmel came:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A mirror wan in dark-wove frame<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_53" id="page_53">{53}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The Witch had sent, and o’er the same<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Breathed many a murmur mystic;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In size it matched the rain-drop pearled<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">At broadest blade-point; round it curled<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Stag-beetle’s antler, carved and whirled<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With sentence Kabalistic.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">The which, if hung ere fall of night<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Near Oberon’s couch, by subtle sleight<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of maker’s craft, and magic’s might,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Would show him such a vision<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As must his frenzy scare away:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“Ay, stranger secrets ’twill bewray,”<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Quoth she; yet more she would not say,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But sped the Elf on his mission.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">This Elfmel did anon relate<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_54" id="page_54">{54}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To his comrades, met in grave debate,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Who joyed to learn their evil estate<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Might now eftsoons be mended.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And twain in haste by secret stair<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To Oberon’s bower the mirror-bare,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">What time he bode all unaware<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of aught his Elves intended.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Methinks when dimness round them closed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The weariest Fay but seldom dozed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For new-blown glee with morn-flush rosed<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The drift of night’s pale lily;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or hope and fear, like boisterous breeze<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whereon the fluttering petal flees,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Frayed sleep, that loves on hearts at ease<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To light and linger stilly.<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_55" id="page_55">{55}</a></span></div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;">
-<a href="images/image055.jpg">
-<img src="images/image055.jpg" width="421" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_56" id="page_56">{56}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_57" id="page_57">{57}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Some soft as drowsy finches sung:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“Oh sweet, ye Fays, our lawns among<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To fleet fair days, from dawn’s flame sprung<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Till night star-bright,” they twittered;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">While others kept a mien more grave,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For somewhat still their minds misgave<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That care so blithe an end should have<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Which long their lives embittered.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">But all, thro’ hopes and fears, watched fain<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To see red light the east distain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That Oberon should rouse again<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From slumbers gramarie-haunted;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For then they must behold a sign<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">If verily to that spell benign<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The Bad Brown Witch’s power malign<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Had yielded, quelled and daunted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_58" id="page_58">{58}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And ’mid the mists of morning-tide<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thronged to the Palace court they hied;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And, lo, the massy door flung wide,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And Oberon thro’ it pacing.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Sad was his look, as if he grieved<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of long-deluding hope bereaved,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or fairest myth, too much believed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Truth-touched with finger effacing.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Forth paced he to as mute a hush<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As falls upon the twittering bush<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whence titmice watch the missel-thrush,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their motley tyrant, coming;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For never a Fay durst move, in fear<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lest haply so should fail his ear<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The words he held his breath to hear<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Above his heart’s thick drumming.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_59" id="page_59">{59}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Nor any sound from earth or sky<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That silence flawed, save if thereby<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A restive Earwig, stalled anigh,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Stamped foot and tugged at tether;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or shrilled a sharper note than that<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where overhead a gaunt-limbed Gnat,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Perched on a neighbouring roof-ridge, sat<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And twirled lean legs together.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Strange tidings unto you I bring,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">My faithful Fays,” so spake the King<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“For in this night a wondrous thing<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Was shown me as I slumbered;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A wondrous thing and piteous both,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For against itself my heart grows wroth<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To think how I have abused your troth,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And worked you woes unnumbered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_60" id="page_60">{60}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Yea, bitter ’tis, since now my brain<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No longer reels thro’ sorcery’s bane,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To trace these tracks of labour vain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This witless work to gaze on;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yon cumbrous heaps of stones and stocks<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Seem filled for me with flouts and mocks,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As if all round on boards and blocks<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I read my folly’s blazon.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Yet bitterer far to feel the while<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That every huge-erected pile<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Rose inch by inch with drudgery vile<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From Elfin race exacted.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And who your freedom’s traitorous thief?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ah, who but I, your chosen chief?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nay, think not I, but frenzy brief<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of mind with charms distracted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_61" id="page_61">{61}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“And now the night-sent sign, that snaps<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This witch-knot black, the mist unwraps<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wherein Fate hid our future haps,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And me its portent teacheth<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">’Tis fit that yet one further task<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I of your tried allegiance ask&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I truly; ’tis no warlock’s mask<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That here your aid beseecheth:<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“I charge you that forthright ye haste<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To lay this cursëd city waste;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Let wall be breached, and site erased,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Pluck down both roof and rafter;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Leave not a stone on stone to stand;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ne’er shall your monarch, by this hand!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of Faery folk such toils demand<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_62" id="page_62">{62}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In all the ages after.”<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Thereat uprose a jubilant shout<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From all who hearkened round about,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For so they knew beyond a doubt<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">King Oberon’s craze departed.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“Swift be the King’s command obeyed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Then hence” (they cried), “to greenwood glade,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where Elves, as liked them best estrayed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whilom have ranged light-hearted.”<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">But Oberon, still of mien deject,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their strain exultant heard and checked<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With lifted palm and pale aspect,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That motioned silence thro’ them.<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_63" id="page_63">{63}</a></span></div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;">
-<a href="images/image063.jpg">
-<img src="images/image063.jpg" width="413" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-<div class="caption">
-
-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_64" id="page_64">{64}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_65" id="page_65">{65}</a></span>&#160; </p>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Not so,” spake he in accents grave,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">“No more for us the deep woods wave,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Tho’ dear the home their greenery gave,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Tho’ long our hearts may rue them;<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“Tho’ fain were I, if this might be,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Down yon cool shades all care to flee,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And very fain would watch your glee<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wax as in good days golden&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For, lo, the dream, whose power undid<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That ill witch-charm, a secret hid,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Which hath, while fouler harm it rid,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">So fair a hope withholden.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Mark well, ye Fays: In years long fled,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_66" id="page_66">{66}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When Earthland first felt Elfin tread&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But whence, or how, or why we sped,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I wot our wisest knows not&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The Fate who did our journeyings guide<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ne’er destined that, whate’er betide,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This ball must aye our dwelling bide,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A prison whose doors unclose not.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“That weird-night’s vision warns me so&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Had meshed us soon in webs of woe,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whence Fate hath willed we free should go,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Long since to me confiding<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The word whereby, if need befal,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Aërial chariots I may call,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Mage-fashioned, meet to waft us all<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Up ways heaven’s vault dividing.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_67" id="page_67">{67}</a></span><br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">“Yet here so long, so blithe, we dwelled,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">So dear our haunts by flood and feld,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That evermore I hoped and held<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Such word need ne’er be spoken,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Now from me wrung by darkening doom,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As menace-murk of thunder-gloom<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Bids shun hurled bolt and bellowing boom<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ere yet the storm hath broken.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">“No plainer speech my lips dare frame;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But, soothly, had ye seen the same,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Each idle moment would ye blame<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That us from flight doth sever,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Not loitering o’er what rests to do<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ere hence we float up yonder blue,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Self-exiled from the paths we knew&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For ever and for ever.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_68" id="page_68">{68}</a></span>”<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">I trow that every Fay who heard<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Was grieved at heart by Oberon’s word,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yet none lamented, none demurred,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or against his will besought him;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For in his steadfast-mournful eyne<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">They could some fatal truth divine,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Tho’ none might know what boding sign<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To stern resolve had wrought him.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And ’tis a riddle still ungues’t<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">What vision from that mirror’s breast<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Was flashed athwart King Oberon’s rest,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">So filled with fear and wonder.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Some say that unto him were shown<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Days when round earth, once green and lone,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Shall whirl with cities all o’ergrown,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">No Elf-ring’s circle asunder;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_69" id="page_69">{69}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And say he saw or ever he woke<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">High heaven blurred out with riftless smoke,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where men ground down ’neath labour’s yoke<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Toil to the mad wheel’s thunder;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">World weeded o’er from prime to prime<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With want, and woe, and care, and crime,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Unmeet to tell in Faery rime,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That halts such burden under.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Howbeit, the Elves in eager crowd<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Made haste to raze those mansions proud;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Anon the rill-cliffs echoed loud<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To crash of timbers falling,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As toppling towers at onslaught rude<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Reeled down in wrack, and street-rows strewed<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_70" id="page_70">{70}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Their swift-wrought ruin, whence captives shrewd<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Slipped homeward, warily crawling.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Till soon, if wanderer chanced to fare<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Across that earth-patch smooth and bare,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He spied no Elfin doings there,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And only heard a rustle<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where shrivelled leaves their serest brown<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thro’ Autumn mists had drifted down.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This was the end of Elfintown,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Built with such coil and bustle.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i2">Then Oberon spake the word of might<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That set the enchanted cars in sight;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But lore I lack to tell aright<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_72" id="page_72">{72}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_71" id="page_71">{71}</a></span></div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter" style="width: 422px;">
-<a href="images/image072.jpg">
-<img src="images/image072.jpg" width="422" height="600" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-<div class="caption">
-
-<p><i>Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &amp; Co.</i></p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_73" id="page_73">{73}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Where these had waited hidden.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Perchance the clear airs round us rolled<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In secret cells did them enfold,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Like evening dew that none behold<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Till to the sward ’tis slidden.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">And who can say what wizardise<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Had fashioned them in marvellous wise,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And given them power to stoop and rise<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">More high than thought hath travelled?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Somewhat of cloud their frames consist,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But more of meteor’s luminous mist,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">All girt with strands of seven-hued twist<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From rainbow’s verge unravelled.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">’Tis said, and I believe it well,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That whoso mounts their magic sell,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_74" id="page_74">{74}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Goes, if he list, invisible<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Beneath the broadest noonlight;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That virtue comes of Faery-fern,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lone-lived where hill-slopes starward turn<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thro’ frore night hours that bid it burn<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Flame-fronded in the moonlight;<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">For this holds true&mdash;too true, alas!&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The sky that eve was clear as glass,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yet no man saw the Faeries pass<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where azure pathways glisten;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And true it is&mdash;too true, ay me&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That nevermore on lawn or lea<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Shall mortal man a Faery see,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Tho’ long he look and listen.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Only the twilit woods among<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_75" id="page_75">{75}</a></span><br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A wild-winged breeze hath sometimes flung<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Dim echoes borne from strains soft-sung<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Beyond sky-reaches hollow;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Still further, fainter up the height,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Receding past the deep-zoned night&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Far chant of Fays who lead that flight,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Faint call of Fays who follow:<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>)&#160; &#160; Red-rose mists o’erdrift<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Moth-moon’s glimmering white,<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Lit by sheen-silled west<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Barred with fiery bar;<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Fleeting, following swift,<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Whither across the night<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Seek we bourne of rest?<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_76" id="page_76">{76}</a></span>
-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>)&#160; &#160;&#160; &#160; Afar.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) Vailing crest on crest<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Down the shadowy height,<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Earth with shores and seas<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Dropt, a dwindling gleam.<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Dusk, and bowery nest,<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Dawn, and dells dew-bright,<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">What shall bide of these?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) &#160; &#160; A dream.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) &#160; &#160; Fled, ah fled, our sight.<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Yea, but thrills of fire<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Throbbed adown yon deep,<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Faint and very far<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Who shall rede aright?<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Say, what wafts us nigher,<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Beckoning up the steep?<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_77" id="page_77">{77}</a></span><span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) A star.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays following.</i>) &#160; &#160; List, a star! a star!<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Oh, our goal of light!<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Yet the winged shades sweep,<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Yet the void looms vast.<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Weary our wild dreams are:<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">When shall cease our flight<br /></span>
-<span class="i20">Soft on shores of sleep?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">(<i>Fays leading.</i>) At last.<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figleft" style="width: 210px;">
-<a href="images/image077.jpg">
-<img src="images/image077.jpg" width="210" height="400" alt="[Image unavailable.]" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_78" id="page_78">{78}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-<img src="images/end.png" width="80" alt="[Image unavailable.]" />
-</div>
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-<img src="images/back.jpg" height="500" alt="[The
-image of the book's back cover is unavailable.]" /></a>
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