Goblin Feet

I'm off down the road,

Where the fairy lanterns glowed

And the little pretty flitter-mice are flying:

A slender band of gray

It runs creepily away

And the hedges and the grass are a-sighing.

The air is full of wings

And of blundery beetle-things,

That warn you with their whirring and their humming.

O! I hear the tiny horns Of enchanted leprechauns

And the padded feet of many gnomes a-coming.
O! the lights! O! the gleams! O! the little tinkly sounds:

O! the rustle of their noiseless little robes!

O! the echo of their feet -- of their happy little feet:

O! their swinging lamps in little starlit globes!
I must follow in their train,

Down the crooked fairy lane

Where the coney-rabbits long ago have gone.

And where silvery they sing

In a moving moonlit ring

All a-twinkle with the jewels they have on.

They are fadding round the turn,

Where the glow-worms palely burn

And the echo of their padding feet is dying.

O! It's knocking at my heart -- Let me go!

O! Let me start! For the little magic hours are all a-flying.
O! the warmth! O! the hum! O! the colours in the dark!

O! the gauzy winds of golden honey-flies!

O! the music of their feet -- of their dancing goblin feet!

O! the magic! O! the sorrow when it dies.

by J.R.R. Tolkien