Chapter XV: Part II

Ask not the Bard to lift the veil
That hides the Fairy's bridal bower;
If thou art young, go seek the glade,
And win thyself some fairy maid;
And rosy lips shall tell the tale
In some enchanted hour.

"Farewell!" as by the greenwood tree,
The Fairy clasp'd the Mortal's hand--
"Our laws forbid thee to delay--
Not ours the life of every day!--
And Man, alas! may rarely be
The Guest of Fairy-land.

"Back to thy Prince's halls depart,
The stateliest of his stately train:
Henceforth thy wish shall be thy mine--
Each toy that gold can purchase, thine--
A fairy's coffers are the heart
A mortal cannot drain."

"Talk not of wealth--that dream is o'er!--
These sunny looks be all my gold!"
"Nay! if in courts thy thoughts can stray
Along the fairy-forest way,
Wish but to see thy bride once more--
Thy bride thou shalt behold.

"Yet hear the law on which must rest
Thy union with thine elfin bride;
If ever by a word--a tone--
Thou mak'st our tender secret known,
The spell will vanish from thy breast--
The Fairy from thy side.

"If thou but boast to mortal ear
The meanest charm thou find'st in me,
If"--here his lips the sweet lips seal,
Low-murmuring, "Love can ne'er reveal--
It cannot breathe to mortal ear
The charms it finds in thee!"