The New era. [volume] ([Portsmouth, Va.]) 1845-1847, 1845-11-08
KATY DlD.-A FAIRY TALE.
BY RUFUS DAWES.

has LOST the colours That decked its fold
The sun is wrapp'd in his ocean shroud,
mantle of green, with an edge of gold
The foliage drops with dew and shower,
The lilies are silently bending low,
And the garden-rose, in her fragrant bower,
Rustes her leaves with thrilling glow,
And dreams of the bee and her rfled treasure
lis the hour of dance, and the minstrel's measure
There is music abroad. but it is not heard,
The stars singing their vesper hymn,
There is melody breathing from ever limb.
Where the frult-ree shelters the slumbering bird
Forth fairy-queens herads have call'd together
The sylphs and fays from their million spheres,
And every fairy the herald hears,
And hastens away over moss and heather,
10 the garden of bliss, and of maden's tears.
Twas midsummer's eve, and the stars were dim,
For the fays had stolen their lamps away,
To ill the moon, till her silver brim
Ran over with light, in her jocund play;
And over the EARTH wherever it went,
1t spread like smile upon beauty's lips,
When fancy free, and no clouds eclipse,
Her bosom's unmarked armament.
And heavenly sylphs from the milky.way,
With spangled garments of snowy Wilderness,
Flooded the skies, with their brilliant eyes,
And dashed the moon with clearer brightness
For all ofheaven, and all of earth,
Or the holy sylphs and the potent fays,
Were called to revel with dance and mirth,
On mdsummers eve in the festal blaze
With the glad hurrah and the loud halloo,
They heard the whip poor-wil's evening cry,
And thousands were sporting with drops of dew
They chased as they fell from the evening sky:
Some danced the rope which the spider threw
From bush to bush, and from tree to tree,
Or riding the murmuring honey bee:
They stormed the hive where the workers slept
In factnn tha,r
And laugh'd aloud as the queen-bee wept
AT their mischievous pranks in her luscious
halls
They sipp'd the sweets from her choicest cells,
And Pilfer'd the bee-bread garner'd there,
And when they had emptied the nectar walls.
They whipp'd the drones till their backs were
bare;
But they promised, before the mornings sun,
To make amends for the mischief DONE
Then one sprang up on the queen bees back,
And spurr'd her sides with nettle sting,
And away she went with bounding spring,
With myriad tribe in her airy track,
Each with fay and honey sack
Twas restless time to the weary bees,
And every insect that builds by day,
Whether it lived in the thick eafd trees,
Or couch'd in the moss where the cold smoke Law;
For some ran down in the red ants cave
And beat their slaves and milk'd their kin.
Then ranged themselves with their fair and
brave,
And eat their viands and drank their wine;
while many jest rang ont aloud,
About the giants that roam the earth,
Their certain death, and their helpless birth;
The red ANTS palace was in shroud!
Others have gather'd fragrant store,
Or the damask-rose which they quickly bring
To the teases dewy reservoir,
And with feathers brush'd from the butterfiy's
wing,
They skim the otto that floats above,
Each drop gift to fairy love.
Some are deck'd out in violet leaves,
Powdered all over with dust of fern,
Their mantle the web which the spider weaves,
With batons they stole from the lily's urn:
And they march to the sound of the brown-anl's
drum,
Mosquitoes trumpet and beetles hum,
Rousing the leaves from their vesper fold,
And waking the slunlbering marigold
Now the bat from his hiding hole.
Wheels through the air with futterng pinions.
The beetle scars from his labor'd mole,
And paddock calls in drowsy dole,
That The fairy queen comes to her earth's do
mnons.
And first in garments of living green,
Like seaweed heavng to reach the shore,
numberless crowd OF elves are seen,
On e-fes riding, like knights of yore
Brier strings were the spears they bore,
Their brides the thatch of the silk worms
shed,
Their feecy plumes from the white moths wing,
And down they came where the noonbeam
spread
It's shadowless light on violet bed,
GaiIy around it lowering.
The queen the queen and a band appear'd.
In costly dresses of richest dyes
While troop of fays on the moonbeams heard,
Clad in a thousand phantasies:
Some in the protea's golden leaves,
That waved and dash'd like a flaming sea
Others dressed from the silver-tree,
Fasen'd with threads the silk worm weaves
The hyacinth came in a virgin dress,
The jonqui brought her fragrant flower,
And sweet narcissus for the hour,
Gave up his mirror'd loneliness.
The broad carnation spread her leaf,
And a1yrillis, with bell,
Brimfu,of fragrance. deign'd to swell
The arbor of the fairy chief.
A nautilus shell was her palanquin,
And there the fair Tilanla sat,
Farer than all that are form'd to wins
And still unwon. to be wondered at;
Tho iasb'd in vamDvrp'S back