Song Of Four Fairies

by John Keats

    Fire, Air, Earth, and Water,
    Salamander, Zephyr, Dusketha, and Breama.

    Salamander.
    Happy, happy glowing fire!

    Zephyr.
    Fragrant air! delicious light!

    Dusketha.
    Let me to my glooms retire!

    Breama.
    I to the green-wood rivers bright!

    Salamander.
    Happy, happy glowing fire!
    Dazzling bowers of soft retire,
    Ever let my nourish'd wing,
    Like a bat's, still wandering,
    Faintly fan your fiery spaces,
    Spirit sole in deadly places.
    In unhaunted roar and blaze,
    Open eyes that never daze,
    Let me see the myriad shapes
    Of men, and beasts, and fish, and apes,
    Portray'd in many a fiery den,
    And wrought by spumy bitumen.
    On the deep intenser roof,
    Arched every way aloof,
    Let me breathe upon their skies,
    And anger their live tapestries;
    Free from cold, and every care,
    Of chilly rain, and shivering air.

    Zephyr.
    Spirit of Fire! away! away!
    Or your very roundelay
    Will sear my plumage newly budded
    From its quilled sheath, all studded
    With the self-same news that fell
    On the May-grown Asphodel.
    Spirit of Fire, away! away!

    Breama.
    Spirit of Fire, away! away!
    Zephyr, blue-ey'd Faery turn,
    And see my cool sedge-bury'd urn,
    Where it rests its mossy brim
    'Mid water-mint and cresses dim;
    And the flowers, in sweet troubles,
    Lift their eyes above the bubbles,
    Like our Queen, when she would please
    To sleep, and Oberon will teaze.
    Love me, blue-ey'd Faery, true!
    Soothly I am sick for you.

    Zephyr.
    Gentle Breama! by the first
    Violet young nature nurst,
    I will bathe myself with thee,
    So you sometimes follow me
    To my home, far, far, in west,
    Beyond the nimble-wheeled quest
    Of the golden-browed sun:
    Come with me, o'er tops of trees,
    To my fragrant palaces,
    Where they ever floating are
    Beneath the cherish of a star
    Call'd Vesper, who with silver veil
    Ever hides his brilliance pale,
    Ever gently-drows'd doth keep
    Twilight for the Fayes to sleep.
    Fear not that your watery hair
    Will thirst in drouthy ringlets there;
    Clouds of stored summer rains
    Thou shalt taste, before the stains
    Of the mountain soil they take,
    And too unlucent for thee make.
    I love thee, crystal Faery, true!
    Sooth I am as sick for you!

    Salamander.
    Out, ye aguish Faeries, out!
    Chilly lovers, what a rout
    Keep ye with your frozen breath,
    Colder than the mortal death.
    Adder-eye'd Dusketha, speak,
    Shall we leave these, and go seek
    In the earth's wide entrails old
    Couches warm as their's are cold?
    O for a fiery gloom and thee,
    Dusketha, so enchantingly
    Freckle-wing'd and lizard-sided!

    Dusketha.
    By thee, Sprite, will I be guided!
    I care not for cold or heat;
    Frost and flame, or sparks, or sleet,
    To my essence are the same; 
    But I honour more the flame.
    Spirit of Fire, I follow thee
    Wheresoever it may be,
    To the torrid spouts and fountains,
    Underneath earth-quaked mountains;
    Or, at thy supreme desire,
    Touch the very pulse of fire
    With my bare unlidded eyes.

    Salamander.
    Sweet Dusketha! paradise!
    Off, ye icy Spirits, fly!
    Frosty creatures of the sky!

    Dusketha.
    Breathe upon them, fiery sprite!

    Zephyr and Breama.
    Away! away to our delight!

    Salamander.
    Go, feed on icicles, while we
    Bedded in tongue-flames will be.

    Dusketha.
    Lead me to those feverous glooms,
    Sprite of Fire!

    Breama.
    Me to the blooms,
    Blue-ey'd Zephyr, of those flowers
    Far in the west where the May-cloud lowers;
    And the beams of still Vesper, when winds are all wist,
    Are shed thro' the rain and the milder mist,
    And twilight your floating bowers.