Orval, or The Fool of Time :: :: University of Virginia Library

Stretching the tired limbs over the ground,
Laying the head o'er the Elfin Mound,
Seem'd I, or dream'd I, to hear and to see
Two milk-white maidens come lightly to me,
So lightly to me?
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

2

Two milk-white maidens: two little elf-girls:
One of them kist me under the curls:
One of them whisper'd me warm in the ear
“Up, and dance with us! the moon shines clear
On mountain and mere.”
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

3

“And look! and my sisters shall glance the sweet glances:
And rise! and my sisters shall dance the sweet dances:

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And list! and my sisters shall sing the sweet songs.”
And the Elves of the forest came round me in throngs,
Around me in throngs!
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

4

And a marvellous music in air was heard,
And voices neither of breeze nor bird:
And the torrent, that never before stood still,
Stopp'd all at once of his own wild will
On the windy hill.
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

5

The torrent, that never before was at rest,
Still'd every beat of his bubbling breast:
And the little white delicate fishes all
Danced. dimpling the diamond waterfall
That stood like a wall.
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

6

The little s'y fishes with silvery tails
Paddled and play'd: and the nightingales
And all the sweet things that live in the air
Sang aloud down the valleys, and everywhere
Through the moonlight fair.

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I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

7

“And wilt thou be of us? and wilt thou be ours?
We will play thee strange music, and ply thee strange powers:
Dance thee sweet dances, and sing thee sweet tunes:
And teach thee to read and to write the great runes
That charm stars and moons.”
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

8

“And that dreaming dragon, that sleepeth, roll'd
Fold over fold, on a heap of red gold,
Shall lift up the eyelid from over the eye,
And sleepily see thee, and, seeing thee, fly
To the desert, and die.”
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

9

Round the elfin ring did the music flow:
And they dancèd high, and they dancèd low.
I watch'd them, drooping an eyelid bland,
But grasping the glaive in the wary hand,
Not trusting the band.
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

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10

And “Hearest thou? fearest thou, fool, to feel pleasure?
Delayest thou? weighest thou mirth with a measure?
We will give thee quick riddance: long rest from all strife:
And cut off the cares that encumber thy life
With a sharp, sharp knife.”
I saw them but once: I shall see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

11

If the cock had not crow'd at that moment so shrill,
And the red dawn flicker'd far off on the hill,
Which sent them all flitting, by tens and twelves,
I might have been there with them yet, and the Elves
Had my soul to themselves.
But I saw them once only, and saw them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.

12

Thou, that ridest by night over elfin ground,
Lay not the head on the Elfin Mound.
And let not the eyelid sink over the eye:
For the Elves are fair: and the Elves are sly:
And a man might die.
Once only I saw them: I see them no more.
Dreaming is o'er.