No fiction was it of the antique age:
A sky-blue stone, within this sunless cleft,
Is of the very footmarks unbereft
Which tiny Elves impressed; - on that smooth stage
Dancing with all their brilliant equipage
In secret revels - haply after theft
Of some sweet Babe - Flower stolen, and coarse Weed left
For the distracted Mother to assuage
Her grief with, as she might! - But, where, oh! where
Is traceable a vestige of the notes
That ruled those dances wild in character? -
Deep underground? Or in the upper air,
On the shrill wind of midnight? or where floats
O'er twilight fields the autumnal gossamer?