THE FAIRY'S SEARCH. 23 



" And join the angel-band !" 



The Fay 

 Thus said, then sadly tiim'd away 

 And, ^vith a drooping heart and wing, 

 Resuni'd again her w^andering. 

 And now^ she seeks a home of sin 

 Which veileth mournful scenes within. 

 Like stream whose sunlit surface hides 

 The gloom that in its depth abides. 

 There, in that dw elling's fatal walls, 

 Virtue a martyr'd victim falls ; 

 There Hope, " the Heaven-born charmer' dies 

 And peace, with trembling pinion, flies 

 Far from the gloomy scene. 



The Fairy pass'd the threshold's bound 

 And gaz'd with timid wonder round ; 

 Soft came the shaded beams of day 

 Through casements drap'd in fabrics gay ; 

 This flood of rosy-tinted light 

 Fell over many an object bright, 

 And, like the glow of sun-set skies, 

 Bestow'd on all its ow n rich dies. 

 There were the Sculptor's forms of grace, 

 In whose Ihir shapes the eye might trace 

 The cunning of a master hand. 

 The powder that genius' sons command ; 

 And pictures whose rich colouring wore 

 The light, the life that beameth o'er 

 A living landscape — forms so fair, 

 Features of loveliness so rare. 

 And eyes that all so life-like beam'd, 

 Shane from the canvass, that it seem'd 



