A Fairy in Armor

He put his acorn helmet on;

It was plumed of the silk of the thistle down;

The corslet plate that guarded his breast

Was once the wild bee's golden vest;

His cloak, of a thousand mingled dyes,

Was formed of the wings of butterflies;

His shield was the shell of a lady-bug green,

Studs of gold on a ground of green;

And the quivering lance which he brandished bright,

Was the sting of a wasp he had slain in fight.

Swift he bestrode his fire-fly steed;

He bared his blade of the bent-grass blue;

He drove his spurs of the cockle-seed,

And away like a glance of thought he flew,

To skim the heavens, and follow far

The fiery trail of the rocket-star.