The Sky-Maiden

The Flesg's fairy numbers

Had sung me to slumbers,
'Neath the wide leafy boughs of the wood;

Till I heard sweeter singing

Than bird-song or harp-ringing,
And beside me a Sky-maiden stood.

Young Love tarried nigh her,
On man making war

With his arrows of fire,
Till my heart did unbar —

Till he left me a capture

To wild-throbbing rapture,
In the ray of that bright beaming Star!

The lily of whiteness,
The berry of brightness,

In combat her fair cheek contest;
Her teeth were the fairest,
Her small rose-lips rarest,

Her blue eyes made beauty their guest;
Her bosom, soft, beaming,

Was snowy and free;
Her neck was, in seeming,

The swan on the sea;
From brow, bright and pearly,
Her gold curls flowed fairly

To her small twinkling feet on the lea.

My heart had been teeming
With grief, for in dreaming,

I had dreamed of the World and its guile;
But my waking was splendid,
My Love-Star had descended,

'Mid the green leafy grove of the isle!
The sun-sheen poured light on

Each bough of each tree,
The sun-sheen fell bright on
Each grass-tip in glee, —

And my Pearl's sheen was streaming
With such brilliance of beaming
That good Fortune gave pledges to me!

Where the river is ringing,

That Sky-maid is singing,
And the birds' mellow music flows clear;

The branches are bowers

Of sweet-scented flowers,
There is honey in mossy banks near.

And hither hares peeping,
'Mid wood-creatures stare,

The foxes come creeping
From out of their lair —

All come full of gladness,

For Her voice would chase sadness,
'Twould give joy to the Clansmen of Care!