He turns, and lo! on either side The ripples on his path divide; And the track o’er which his boat must pass Is smooth as a sheet of polished glass. Around, their limbs the sea-nymphs lave, With snowy arms half swelling out, While on the glossed and gleamy wave Their sea-green ringlets loosely float; They swim around with smile and song; They press the bark with pearly hand, And gently urge her course along, Toward the beach of speckled sand; And, as he lightly leaped to land, They bade adieu with nod and bow, Then gaily kissed each little hand, And dropped in the crystal deeps below. XXIV. A moment stayed the fairy there; He kissed the beach and breathed a prayer, Then spread his wings of gilded blue, And on to the elfin court he flew; As ever ye saw a bubble rise, And shine with a thousand changing dyes, Till lessening far through ether driven, It mingles with the hues of heaven; As, at the glimpse of morning pale, The lance-fly spreads his silken sail, And gleams with blending soft and bright, Till lost in the shades of fading night; So rose from earth the lovely Fay— So vanished, far in heaven away! ... Up, Fairy! quit thy chick-weed bower, The cricket has called the second hour, Twice again, and the lark will rise To kiss the streaking of the skies— Up! thy charmed armour don, Thou’lt need it ere the night be gone. XXV. He put his acorn-helmet on; It was plumed of the silk of the thistle-down; The corslet-plate that guarded his breast Was once the wild-bees’ golden vest; His cloak of a thousand mingled dyes, Was formed of the wings of butterflies; His shield was the shell of a lady-bug queen, Studs of gold on a ground of green; And the quivering lance which he brandished bright, Was the sting of a wasp he had slain in fight. Swift he bestrode his firefly steed; He bared his blade of the bent grass blue; He drove his spurs of the cockle-seed, And away like a glance of thought he flew, To skim the heavens and follow far The fiery trail of the rocket-star. XXVI.