WEIRD AND FANTASTIC. THE FAIRY QUEEN. Come, follow Mab, your queen! When mortals are at rest, And if the house be foul There we pinch their arms and thighs- But if the house be swept, Upon a mushroom's head The brains of nightingales, OVER HILL, OVER DALE. FROM "A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM." OVER hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Thorough flood, thorough fire, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. ARIEL'S SONGS. FROM "THE TEMPEST." I. COME unto these yellow sands, And then take hands: Court'sied when you have, and kiss'd,— The wild waves whist, Foot it featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burden bear. Hark, hark! Bow, wow. The watch-dogs bark Bow, wow. Hark, hark! I hear The strain of strutting chanticleer Cry Cock-a-diddle-dow. II. Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade 795 Some in the reeds Of the black mountain-lake, With frogs for their watch-dogs, All night awake. High on the hill-top The old King sits; He is now so old and gray From Slieveleague to Rosses; On cold starry nights, To sup with the Queen Of the gay Northern Lights. They stole little Bridget For seven years long; When she came down again Her friends were all gone. Between the night and morrow, THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM. CANTO I. WHAT dire offence from amorous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial I sing This verse to Caryl, muse! is due; Say what strange motive, goddess! could A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle? Could make a gentle belle reject a lord? And the press'd watch returned a silver Belinda still her downy pillow prest- 'Twas he had summon'd to her silent bed A youth more glittering than a birthnight Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen, Hear and believe! thy own importance know, Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. Some secret truths, from learned pride concealed, To maids alone and children are reveal'd: What though no credit doubting wits may give? The fair and innocent shall still believe. Know, then, unnumber'd spirits round thee fly The light militia of the lower sky: These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, Hang o'er the box, and hover round the ring. Think what an equipage thou hast in air, And view with scorn two pages and a chair. As now your own, our beings were of old, And once enclosed in woman's beauteous mould; Thence, by a soft transition, we repair That all her vanities at once are dead; the cards. Her joy in gilded chariots, when alive, And love of ombre, after death survive; For when the fair in all their pride expire, "Know further yet; whoever fair and chaste Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embraced: For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease Assume what sexes and what shapes they please. What guards the purity of melting maids, In courtly balls and midnight masquerades, Safe from the treacherous friend, the daring spark, The glance by day, the whisper in the dark When kind occasion prompts their warm desires, When music softens, and when dancing fires? "Tis but their sylph, the wise celestials know, Though honor is the word with men below. "Some nymphs there are, too conscious of their face, For life predestined to the gnome's embrace; These swell their prospects and exalt their pride, When offers are disdain'd, and love de nied; Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain, While peers, and dukes, and all their sweeping train, And garters, stars, and coronets appear, And in soft sounds Your Grace' salutes their ear. 'Tis these that early taint the female soul, Instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll; Teach infant cheeks a bidden blush to know, And little hearts to flutter at a beau. "Oft when the world imagine women stray, To their first elements their souls retire, gnome their way; Through all the giddy circle they pursue. In search of mischief still on earth to And old impertinence expel by new. roam; The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, And sport and flutter in the fields of air. What tender maid but must a victim fall To one man's treat, but for another's ball? |