VIII
FAERY
There's a fountain in the Court of Fairy Tales:
Beauty thrones upon the Beast and water pours,
Down it slips and slides and shivers,
O'er the circling brim it quivers,
Thin as melting ice in spring,
Clear as sheets of elfin glass,
Drops in crystal filigree,
And flashes in the basin as you pass.
Curving curbs the waters stay,
Wrought with figures ashen-grey.
A lion walks around the rim,
An ape forever following him,
And after them a kindly pair,
A panther and a dancing bear.
And whoso looks the court about
Sees other lions gazing out
Across the harmless pansy beds.
Great and shaggy are their heads;
They rest at ease upon their paws,
With garlands in their smiling jaws.
And poised on the tip of the dappled tower
A sunlit Fairy waits the magic hour.
