And here we find that the fancy is not more sportive in dreams, than are the poets in their descriptions of her nocturnal vagaries.

"She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs; 15 And her's shall be the breathing balm, And her's the silence and the calm Of mute insensate things.

Though old in cunning, as in years, He is so small, that like a child In face and form, the god appears, And sportive like a boy, and wild; Lightly he moves from place to place, In none at rest, in none content; Delighted some new toy to chase On childish purpose ever bent.

And dear she was to doat on, her swift feet seemed to float on The air like soft twin pigeons too sportive to alight.