Here's a wonderful thing, <br />A humming-bird's wing <br />In hammered gold, <br />And store well chosen <br />Of snowflakes frozen <br />In crystal cold. <br /> <br />Black onyx cherries <br />And mistletoe berries <br />Of chrysoprase, <br />Jade buds, tight shut, <br />All carven and cut <br />In intricate ways. <br /> <br />Here, if you please <br />Are little gilt bees <br />In amber drops <br />Which look like honey, <br />Translucent and sunny, <br />From clover-tops. <br /> <br />Here's an elfin girl <br />Of mother-of-pearl <br />And moonshine made, <br />With tortise-shell hair <br />Both dusky and fair <br />In its light and shade. <br /> <br />Here's lacquer laid thin, <br />Like a scarlet skin <br />On an ivory fruit; <br />And a filigree frost <br />Of frail notes lost <br />From a fairy lute. <br /> <br />Here's a turquoise chain <br />Of sun-shower rain <br />To wear if you wish; <br />And glittering green <br />With aquamarine, <br />A silvery fish. <br /> <br />Here are pearls all strung <br />On a thread among <br />Pretty pink shells; <br />And bubbles blown <br />From the opal stone <br />Which ring like bells. <br /> <br />Touch them and take them, <br />But do not break them! <br />Beneath your hand <br />They will wither like foam <br />If you carry them home <br />Out of fairy-lannd. <br /> <br />O, they never can last <br />Though you hide them fast <br />From moth and from rust; <br />In your monstrous day <br />They will crumble away <br />Into quicksilver dust.<br /><br />Elinor Morton Wylie<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-fairy-goldsmith/
