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When this plaint had gone
Wafting along o'er leaf and stem,
Full many a flower
Who deemed her own beauty a peerless gem,
Began to lour,
And sulkily shut up her leaves an hour
Before the sun
Had gone to his rest in his western bower.
One sly little bud resolved to see
What the tint of this elfin heaven might be;
And when the Fay
Spread her gossamer wings, to fly away
For a transient glimpse of her home so bright,
There clung to her foot a seedling light
Of the Commeline-flower—and up they go
(While marvelled the Fairy what pinched her so)
Aloft, aloft!
On pinions soft,
The Fairy flew onward with strengthening speed,
And taking heed
To be mute and still, and watchful, too,
Went on the adventurous Commeline-seed.
And when over them, clear, and bright, and high,
Rose the dazzling canopied fairy sky,
No longer wondered young Commeline
That the azure of earth as dim was seen
By their gentle and guardian elfin queen;
