Fairies

There's a little fairy who     Peeps from every drop of dew:     You can see him wink and shine     On the morning-glory vine,     Mischief in his eye of blue.     There's another fairy that     Rides upon the smallest gnat:     You can hear him tremolo     When the summer dusk falls slow,     Circling just above your hat.     And another one that sways     In the golden slanted rays     Of the sunlight where it floats:     Prosy people call them motes,     But they're fairies, father says.     But there's one that no one sees,     Only, maybe, moths and bees;     Who in lofts, where knot-holes are,     On the thin light of a star     Slides through crannied crevices.     You may hear him sigh and sing     Near a May-fly's captured wing     In a spider-web close by:     See him with a moonbeam pry     Moonflowers open where they swing.     Down the garden-ways he goes     On a beetle's back, and blows     Sullen music from a horn:     Or you'll hear him when 't is morn     Buzzing bee-like by a rose.     And it's he who, when 't is night,     Twinkles with a firefly light;     Shakes a katydid tambourine;     Or amid the mossy green     Rasps his cricket-fiddle tight.     He it is who heaves the dome     Of the mushroom through the loam,     Plumper than a baby's thumb:     Or who taps a tinder drum     In the dead wood's honeycomb.     He's that Robin Goodfellw,     Or that Puck who, long ago,     Used to marshlight-lead astray     People in old Shakespeare's day     That is, father told me so.     He's the one that, in the Fall,     Frisks the dead leaves round us all;     Herds them; drives them wildly past,     Dancing with them just as fast     As a boy can throw a ball.     Wonder what he looks like. Asked     Father once. He said he'd tasked     Mind and soul to find out, but     It was harder than a nut;     Just refused to be unmasked.     Though he thought, perhaps, he might     Find out some time, and delight     Telling me; but well he knew     He was like my questions, too,     Teasing and confusing quite.