Note 392:B — Chapter IX · (continued 2)

"There is a fountain in the forest call'd The fountain of the Fairies; when a child, With most delightful wonder I have heard Tales of the Elfin tribe that on its banks Hold midnight revelry. An ancient oak, The goodliest of the forest, grows beside, Alone it stands, upon a green grass plat, By the woods bounded like some little isle. It ever hath been deem'd their favourite tree, They love to lie and rock upon its leaves, And bask them in the moon-shine. Many a time Hath the woodman shown his boy where the dark round On the green-sward beneath its boughs, bewrays Their nightly dance, and bade him spare the tree. Fancy had cast a spell upon the place And made it holy; and the villagers Would say that never evil thing approached Unpunished there. The strange and fearful pleasure That fill'd me by that solitary spring, Ceas'd not in riper years; and now it woke Deeper delight, and more mysterious awe."