Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Fancy: II. Fairies: Elves: SpritesSongs of Ariel
William Shakespeare (15641616) CAnd then take hands;
Court’sied when you have, and kissed.
(The wild waves whist!)
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.
Hark, hark!
Burthen [dispersedly]—Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark—
Burthen [dispersedly]—Bow-wow.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry Cock-a diddle-dow.
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Burthen.—Ding-dong!
Hark! now I hear them—ding, dong, bell!
In a cowslip’s bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry;
On the bat’s back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.