Lo! upon the stone reposing,
Dewy sleep her eyelids closing,
Rests the Fay;
Wearily hath the exile wandered,
Sadly o'er her sorrow pondered,
All the day.
Flinty pathways, lone and dreary,
Quite unmeet for foot of Peri,
Soft and fair;--
Heavy air with vapors laden,
Shrinking, fragile wings from Aidenn
May not dare;--
Such the gifts our planet proffers,
Such the thorny home she offers
Spirits fine:
Artists, poets, earthward sent us,
Heavenly natures, briefly lent us,
Droop like thine!
Happy if, amid their dreaming,
They can feel the glories streaming
From above;--
See the light, and hear the flowing,
Gushing anthems--melting, glowing
Strains of love!
Happy Peri! faintly smiling;
Quivering lip, the sense beguiling,
Dimpled cheek,
Form ethereal, heavenly moulded,
Shadowing eyelids, soft wings folded
Rest to seek,--
All betray thee, young immortal,
Eden's child, without its portal
Doomed to roam!
Yet thy spirit sees the glory,
Hears entranced the rapturous story
Of thy home.
Who, O Fay, would dare to wake thee,
From ecstatic visions take thee
But to weep?
Softly dreaming, waking never
Till thy dreams are truths forever,
Sweetly sleep!