She speaks of riddles in satin green;

“For now, or never, what I’ve brought and what I bring…”

Lies truth or folly in lowly pristine;

“Is to change the end, or perish therein.”

-

Like daisies bolting from the grove

Or bolted aside the puckish clove,

She rose from the trails that no oceans know

Stretching the bonds of bluish flow;

-

And I, lucullan emerald entranced

Lie past the gates where all reason chanced

To show its eyes, or gaze, or glance

As beauty threw my sight askance;

-

“I will step closer,” – and how I did, I knew!

“- And dare imbibe this sight of you,”

And like laughter the ring shimmered the night through

With its bewitched flora and sprightly yew;

-

Night-ward was my glance though I lie ‘wake

Condemned with every step I take

A footmark of downfall where fairies partake

To celebrate a landmark of orphic mistake.

-

But no! Lyncean hands held fast

In a trice belonging me to a different path

“For now, or never,” – sweet words held her breath

And held mine forever from fatuous death;

-

Enjoining with haste, “- what I’ve brought or what I bring…”

And laughed she, and laughed I, tremulously holding

Though I bending and breaking from the magical cling,

“Is to change the end, or to perish therein.”