Let none profane my Holy See of love,

Or with a rude hand break

The sacramental cake:

Let none else touch the just new-budded flower;
If not - may my eyes close,
Love! on their last repose.

A DREAM, AFTER READING DANTE'S EPISODE OF PAOLO AND FRANCESCA

As Hermes once took to his feathers light,

When lulled Argus, baffled, swoon'd and slept
So on a Delphic reed, my idle spright

So play'd, so charm'd, so conquer'd, so bereft
The dragon-world of all its hundred eyes;
And seeing it asleep, so fled away·

Not to pure Ida with its snow-cold skies,
Nor unto Tempe where Jove grieved a day;
But to that second circle of sad hell,

Where 'mid the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell

Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw, Pale were the lips I kiss'd, and fair the form I floated with, about that melancholy storm.

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI

I

Aн, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

II

Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel's granary is full,

And the harvest 's done.

III

I see a lily on thy brow,

With anguish moist and fever dew; And on thy cheek a fading rose

Fast withereth too.

IV

I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful-a faery's child; Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild.

V

I set her on my pacing steed,

And nothing else saw all day long, For sideways would she lean, and sing A faery's song.

VI

I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She look'd at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan.

VII

She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild, and manna dew; And sure in language strange she said· 'I love thee true.'

VIII

She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she gazed, and sighed deep, And there I shut her wild wild eyes So kiss'd to sleep.

IX

And there we slumber'd on the moss,

And there I dream'd

Ah! woe betide !

The latest dream I ever dream'd

On the cold hill side.

X

I saw pale kings, and princes too,

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried 'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'

ΧΙ

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke, and found me here

On the cold hill side.

XII

And this is why I sojourn here,

Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

CHORUS OF FAIRIES

FIRE, AIR, EARTH, AND WATER

SALAMANDER, ZEPHYR, DUSKETHA, AND BREAMA

SALAMANDER

HAPPY, happy glowing fire!

ZEPHYR

Fragrant air! delicious light!

DUSKETHA

Let me to my glooms retire !

BREAMA

I to green-weed rivers bright!

SALAMANDER

Happy, happy glowing fire !
Dazzling bowers of soft retire,
Ever let my nourish'd wing,
Like a bat's, still wandering,
Faintly fan your fiery spaces,
Spirit sole in deadly places.
In unhaunted roar and blaze,
Open eyes that never daze,
Let me see the myriad shapes
Of men, and beasts, and fish, and apes,
Portray'd in many a fiery den,

And wrought by spumy bitumen.
On the deep intenser roof,
Arched every way, aloof,
Let me breathe upon my skies,
And anger their live tapestries;
Free from cold, and every care,
Of chilly rain, and shivering air.

ZEPHYR

Spright of Fire! away! away!
Or your very roundelay

Will sear my plumage newly budded
From its quilled sheath, and studded
With the self-same dews that fell
On the May-grown Asphodel.
Spright of Fire-away! away!

BREAMA

Spright of Fire - away! away!
Zephyr, blue-eyed Faery, turn,
And see my cool sedge-shaded urn,
Where it rests its mossy brim

'Mid water-mint and cresses dim;

And the flowers, in sweet troubles,
Lift their eyes above the bubbles,
Like our Queen, when she would please
To sleep, and Oberon will tease.
Love me, blue-eyed Faery! true,
Soothly I am sick for you.

ZEPHYR

Gentle Breama! by the first
Violet young nature nurst,
I will bathe myself with thee,
So you sometime follow me
To my home, far, far, in west,
Far beyond the search and quest
Of the golden-browed sun.
Come with me, o'er tops of trees,
To my fragrant palaces,
Where they ever floating are
Beneath the cherish of a star

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Call'd Vesper, who with silver veil
Ever hides his brilliance pale,

Ever gently-drowsed doth keep

Twilight for the Fays to sleep.
Fear not that your watery hair
Will thirst in drouthy ringlets there;
Clouds of stored summer rains
Thou shalt taste, before the stains
Of the mountain soil they take,
And too unlucent for thee make.
I love thee, crystal Faery, true!
Sooth I am as sick for you!

SALAMANDER

Out, ye aguish Faeries, out!
Chilly lovers, what a rout

Keep ye with your frozen breath,
Colder than the mortal death.
Adder-eyed Dusketha, speak,

Shall we leave them, and go seek

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