THE GREEN GNOME
Ring, sing! ring, sing! pleasant Sabbath bells!
Chime, rime! chime, rime! through dales and dells!
Rime, ring! chime, sing! pleasant Sabbath bells!
Chime, sing! rime, ring! over fields and fells!
And I galloped and I galloped on my palfrey white as milk,
My robe was of the sea-green woof, my serk was of silk;
My hair was golden yellow, and it floated to my shoe,
My eyes were like two harebells bathed in little drops of dew;
My palfrey, never stopping, made a music sweetly blent
With the leaves of autumn dropping all around me as I went;
And I heard the bells, grown fainter, far behind me peal and play,
Fainter, fainter, fainter, till they seemed to die away;
And beside a silver runnel, on a little heap of sand,
I saw the green gnome sitting, with his cheek upon his hand.
Then he started up to see me, and he ran with cry and bound,
And drew me from my palfrey white and set me on the ground.
Oh crimson, crimson were his locks, his face was green to see,
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