ENCHANTED

Of wight waylaid of faery, and of enchantments enchainéd, What singeth one unto the height of heaven? “This one boldly hath battled and this refrainéd”; O easily maketh a little man The lay of a lounging courtesan! But for a bewitching and a spell must seemly song be given. The long and lingering eventide In the wood did gild the grass; And she, like to a shining bride, To a moveless flame did pass, And dead leaves were fashioned brass. Thou Perkin, as men called thee, Fully well didst know thy doom; As stilly and as silently As eglantine doth hold her bloom Goldenly upon a gloom: And with foreknowledge didst go To the castles of thy kin, That for lessening of their woe Have no soul and little sin; Prithee keep thou safe within! Free of murder and of malice Flowereth the common weed; From a featly fashioned chalice Faery foxglove sows her seed, And is a royal herb indeed: Didst thou of her purple reap, That thou mightest never turn To a warmly thatchéd sleep And the cottage hearths that burn Peat and furze and forest fern? Ay perchance; what is a fire Made of turves, of heavy smoke, Smouldering in a cabined byre, To the fires of faery folk That the husbandmen invoke? Pacing down the alleys green Thou didst go, and now art lost The beeches and the briers between, And the dewy ways are crossed Only by thy gentle ghost. The large-eyed cony followeth Where do walk thy quiet feet, And unfearing of her death Culleth her accustomed meat In the even passing sweet. The cloud beside the hill doth stand; Thou beyond them both dost dwell In a far and fairy land; And yet dost sit beside the well Darkling in the dimpled dell. Thou dost turn thy wildling look Gravely on a passing face; Never man, in any book, That most still regard may trace; Stay thou thus a little space Blessing all the neighbour place. 1915.