 | [Poems by Drake in] The life and works of Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) |  |
VII
“Fairy! Fairy! list and mark—Thou hast broke thy elfin chain,
Thy flame-wood lamp is quenched and dark,
And thy wings are dyed with a deadly stain;
Thou hast sullied thine elfin purity
In the glance of a mortal maiden's eye;
Thou hast scorned our dread decree,
And thou shouldst pay the forfeit high;
But well I know her sinless mind
Is pure as the angel forms above,
Gentle and meek, and chaste and kind,
Such as a spirit well might love;
Spirit! had she spot or taint,
Bitter had been thy punishment.
Tied to the hornet's shardy wings,
Tossed on the pricks of nettle stings,
Or seven long ages doomed to dwell
149
Or every night to writhe and bleed
Beneath the tread of the centipede;
Or bound in a cobweb dungeon dim,
Your jailor a spider huge and grim,
Amid the carrion bodies to lie,
Of the worm, and the bug, and the murdered fly—
These it had been your lot to bear,
Had a stain been found on the earthly fair.
Now list, and mark our mild decree—
Fairy! this your doom must be:
| [Poems by Drake in] The life and works of Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) | |