 | [Poems by Drake in] The life and works of Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) |  |
IV
They come from beds of lichen green,They creep from the mullen's velvet screen;
Some on the backs of beetles fly
From the silver tops of moon-touched trees,
Where they swung in their cobweb hammocks high,
And rocked about in the evening breeze;
Some from the hum-bird's downy nest—
They had driven him out by elfin power,
And pillowed on plumes of his rainbow breast,
Had slumbered there till the charmed hour;
Some had lain in a scoop of the rock,
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And some had opened the four-o'clock,
And stole within its purple shade.
And now they throng to the moonlight glade,
Above—below—on every side,
Their little minim forms arrayed
In the tricksy pomp of fairy pride.
| [Poems by Drake in] The life and works of Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) | |