“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.