4 LITTLE PRINCESS MEE


    Lovely was she


    As in elven-song is told:


    She had pearls in hair


    All threaded fair;


    Of gossamer shot with gold


    Was her kerchief made,


    And a silver braid


    Of stars about her throat.


    Of moth-web light


    All moonlit-white


    She wore a woven coat,


    And round her kirtle


    Was bound a girdle


    Sewn with diamond dew.


    She walked by day


    Under mantle grey


    And hood of clouded blue;


    But she went by night


    All glittering bright


    Under the starlit sky,


    And her slippers frail


    Of fishes'' mail


    Flashed as she went by


    To her dancing-pool,


    And on mirror cool


    Of windless water played.


    As a mist of light


    In whirling flight


    A glint like glass she made


    Wherever her feet


    Of silver fleet


    Flicked the dancing-floor.


    She looked on high


    To the roofless sky,


    And she looked to the shadowy shore;


    Then round she went,


    And her eyes she bent


    And saw beneath her go


    A Princess Shee


    As fair as Mee:


    They were dancing toe to toe!


    Shee was as light


    As Mee, and as bright;


    But Shee was, strange to tell,


    Hanging down


    With starry crown


    Into a bottomless well!


    Her gleaming eyes


    In great surprise


    Looked up to the eyes of Mee:


    A marvellous thing,


    Head-down to swing


    Above a starry sea!


    Only their feet


    Could ever meet;


    For where the ways might lie


    To find a land


    Where they do not stand


    But hang down in the sky


    No one could tell


    Nor learn in spell


    In all the elven-lore.


    So still on her own


    An elf alone


    Dancing as before


    With pearls in hair


    And kirtle fair


    And slippers frail


    Of fishes'' mail went Mee:


    Of fishes'' mail


    And slippers frail


    And kirtle fair


    With pearls in hair went Shee!