In vain the call!--Till moonlight's hour Again diffuse its softer power, Titania, nor her fairy loves, Emerge from India's spicy groves. Then, when the shadowy hour returns, When silence reigns o'er air and earth, And every star in ether burns, They come to celebrate their mirth; In frolic ringlet trip the ground, Bid music's voice on silence win, Till magic echoes answer round-- Thus do their festive rites begin. O fairy forms so coy to mortal ken, Your mystic steps to poets only shown; O! lead me to the brook, or hollow'd glen, Retiring far, with winding woods o'ergrown Where'er ye best delight to rule; If in some forest's lone retreat, Thither conduct my willing feet To the light brink of fountain cool, Where, sleeping in the midnight dew, Lie spring's young buds of every hue, Yielding their sweet breath to the air; To fold their silken leaves from harm, And their chill heads in moonshine warm, Is bright Titania's tender care. There, to the night-birds's plaintive chaunt Your carols sweet ye love to raise, With oaten reed and pastoral lays; And guard with forceful spell her haunt, Who, when your antic sports are done, Oft lulls ye in the lily's cell, Sweet flower! that suits your slumbers well, And shields ye from the rising sun. When not to India's steeps ye fly After twilight and the moon, In honey buds ye love to lie, While reigns supreme light's fervid noon; Nor quit the cell where peace pervades. Till night leads on the dews and shades. E'en now your scenes enchanted meet my sight! I see the earth unclose, the palace rise, The high dome swell, and long arcades of light Glitter among the deep embowering woods, And glance reflecting from the trembling floods! While to soft lutes the portals wide unfold, And fairy forms, of fine ethereal dyes, Advance with frolic step and laughing eyes, Their hair with pearl, their garments deck'd with gold; Pearls that in Neptune's briny waves they sought, And gold from India's deepest caverns brought. Thus your light visions to my eyes unveil, Ye sportive pleasures, sweet illusion, hail! But ah! at morn's first blush again ye fade! So from youth's ardent gaze life's landscape gay, And forms in fancy's summer hues array'd, Dissolve at once in air at truth's resplendent day!