A tell-tale in their company They never could endure, And whoso kept not secretly Their mirth, was punished sore; It was a just and Christian deed To pinch such black and blue; Oh, how the Commonwealth doth need Such justices as you. RICHARD CORBET. FAIRY SONG. Have ye left the greenwood lone? Are your steps for ever gone? Fairy King and Elfin Queen, Come ye to the sylvan scene, From your dim and distant shore, Never more? Shall the pilgrim never hear With a thrill of joy and fear, In the hush of moonlight hours, Voices from the folded flowers, Faint sweet flute-notes as of yore, Never more? “Mortal! ne’er shall bowers of earth Hear again our midnight mirth: By our brooks and dingles green Since unhallow’d steps have been, Ours shall thread the forests hoar Never more. Ne’er on earthborn lily’s stem Will we hang the dewdrop’s gem; Ne’er shall reed or cowslip’s head Quiver to our dancing tread, By sweet fount or murmuring shore, Never more!” FELICIA HEMANS. AN INVOCATION. By the Moon-Queen’s mystic light, By the hush of holy night, By the woodland deep and green, By the starlight’s silver sheen, By the zephyr’s whisper’d spell, Brooding Powers Invisible, Faërie Court and Elfin Throng, Unto whom the groves belong, And by Laws of ancient date, Found in Scrolls of Faërie Fate, Stream and fount are dedicate, Wheresoe’er your feet to-day, Far from haunts of men may stray, We adjure you, stay no more, Exiles on an alien shore, But with spells of magic birth Once again make glad the earth! Here in glade and dingle sweet Ye may find a snug retreat: Can ye wish for softer bed Than the moss that here is spread? Here the mavis’ voice is heard, Every late and early bird; Many a tendril’s slender string Here is fit for fairy swing; Purling brooks and founts that play Make sweet music night and day; In the lakes that stedfast lie Under Heaven’s eternal eye, The blown lilies, waiting, float, Each will serve as elfin boat; Tender as a harper’s string Is the low wind’s lute-playing; Never do the evening dews Nectar to the flowers refuse: Who shall find a fairer spot? Linger, fairies, linger not! ...