Fairies

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On the tremulous coppice,
  From her plenteous hair,
  Large golden-rayed poppies
  Of moon-litten air
  The Night hath flung there.

  In the fern-favored hollow
  The fire-flies fleet
  Uncertainly follow
  Pale phantoms of heat,
  Druid shadows that meet.

  Hidden flowers are fragrant;
  The night hazes furl
  O'er the solitudes vagrant
  In purple and pearl,
  Sway-swinging and curl.

  From moss-cushioned valley
  Where the red sunlight fails,
  Rocks where musically
  The hollow spring wails,
  And the limber fern trails,

  With a ripple and twinkle
  Of luminous arms,
  Of voices that tinkle,
  And feet that are storms
  Of chaste, naked charms,

  Like echoes that revel
  On hills, where the brier
  Vaults roofs of dishevel
  And green, greedy fire,
  They come as a choir.

  At the root of the mountain
  Where the dim forest lies,
  By the spar-spouting fountain
  Where the low lily dies,
  With their star-stinging eyes.

  They gather sweet singing
  In voices that seem
  Faint ringing and clinging
  In dreams that we dream,
  In visions that gleam.

  Sweet lisping of kisses,
  Dry rustle of hair;
  A footfall that hisses
  Like a leaf in the air
  When the brown boughs are bare.

  The music that scatters
  From love-litten eyes;
  The music that flatters
  In words and low sighs,
  In laughter that dies:

  "Come hither, come hither,
  In the million-eyed night,
  Ere the moon-flowers wither
  And the harvester white,
  Morning reaps them with light.

  "Come hither, where singing
  Is pleasant as tears,
  Or dead kisses, clinging
  To the murdering years,
  In memory's ears.

  "Come hither where kisses
  Are waiting for you,
  For lips and long tresses,
  As for wild flowers blue
  The moon-heated dew.

  "Come hither from coppice
  And violet dale,
  The mountain whose top is
  In vapors that sail
  With pearly hail pale.

  "Why tarry? come hither
  While the molten moon beams,
  Ere the golden spark wither
  Of the glow-worm that gleams
  Like a star in still streams!"

© Madison Julius Cawein