Fairyland

1Dim vales — and shadowy floods —

2And cloudy-looking woods,

3Whose forms we can't discover

4For the tears that drip all over

5Huge moons there wax and wane —

6Again — again — again —

7Every moment of the night —

8Forever changing places —

9And they put out the star-light

10With the breath from their pale faces.

11About twelve by the moon-dial

12One more filmy than the rest

13(A kind which, upon trial,

14They have found to be the best)

15Comes down — still down — and down

16With its centre on the crown

17Of a mountain's eminence,

18While its wide circumference

19In easy drapery falls

20Over hamlets, over halls,

21Wherever they may be —

22O'er the strange woods — o'er the sea —

23Over spirits on the wing —

24Over every drowsy thing —

25And buries them up quite

26In a labyrinth of light —

27And then, how deep! — O, deep!

28Is the passion of their sleep.

29In the morning they arise,

30And their moony covering

31Is soaring in the skies,

32With the tempests as they toss,

33Like — almost any thing —

34Or a yellow Albatross.

35They use that moon no more

36For the same end as before —

37Videlicet a tent —

38Which I think extravagant:

39Its atomies, however,

40Into a shower dissever,

41Of which those butterflies,

42Of Earth, who seek the skies,

43And so come down again

44(Never-contented thing!)

45Have brought a specimen

46Upon their quivering wings.