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<h2>Elfin Dancer</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Beneath unfathomable seas, Deeper than dreams, Sounder than sleep, Beyond the magic of the trees Where never light nor gladness gleams, Where neither life nor love can glow; There, you lie low: Frozen, encased in crystal shape, Enwrapped, enmeshed by claws that gape; And not until you start from sleep May you be drawn from cavern deep, And never till the earth has quaked Can you from fairy trance be waked. </div> <div class="stanza"> You dance! You dance on tiptoe! Up from the grave of withered fears, The earth wind, rushing in your ears, Spirit of joy and youth, most fair, Crowned by your wonder-loosened hair; You dance! You dance on tiptoe! The grass just bending at your feet, The earth untouched, as fairy-fleet Onward you go, Upward you flow, Up through the leaves, a spiral flame, A tongue of fire, with arrow-aim, Whose mystic essence inter-blending Flows in a torrent never ending; [29]Through that strange tree whose blossoms pale Wreathe, lily-like, a bridal veil! (Mysterious tree, whose knotted base Scarce bears the ardour of your chase!) Emerging thence by rapture swayed You rise from leafy ambuscade Poised in the ether, to and fro, One moment, hesitating—so— Flashing from elfin eyes one glance Still on tiptoe You dance! You dance! </div> <div class="stanza"> Oh! earth-born spirit! Swift wonder child of flame; The essence of your being, Dull human eyes, unseeing, Can never hope to tame; You may be worshipped from afar! By faith, by hope, we see the star From whence, you came: Fleet as the wind amongst the hills Your spirit listeth as it wills; Oh Pagan huntress, chaste and wild, You dwell amongst us, undefiled! But if we falter at your door At one false step your shrine, before One discord note, one word awry You vanish straight from human eye: The earth unfolds herself to seize, Your laughter echoes in the trees; And you are known no more. [30]</div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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