Page:William Blake, a critical essay (Swinburne).djvu/158

142 A much better and more solid version of the same fancy than the one given in the "Selections" under the head of "Love's Secret;" which is rather weakly and lax in manner. Our present poem has on the other hand an exquisite "lithe" grace of limb and suppleness of step, suiting deliciously with the "light high laugh" in its tone: while for sweet and rapid daring, for angelically puerile impudence as it were, it may be matched against any song of its fantastic sort.

Less complete in a small way, but worth taking some care of, is this carol of a fairy, emblem of a man's light hard tyranny of will, calling upon the birds in the harness of Venus and the shafts in the hand of her son for help in setting up the kingdom of established and legal love: but caught himself in the very setting of his net.

THE MARRIAGE RING. Come hither, my sparrows,

My little arrows.

If a tear or a smile

Will a man beguile,

If an amorous delay

Clouds a sunshiny day,

If the step of a foot

Smites the heart to its root,

'Tis the marriage ring

Makes each fairy a king.'

So a fairy sang.

From the leaves I sprang;

He leaped from his spray

To flee away: