On a remote isle alive with sea winds and sweet
melody lived the sylph known as Ariel - spirit and
avatar of the air. He slept in the cowslip's bell, rode
merrily on the back of a bat and looked down from
the curled clouds on the revels of humans below.

With his singing (for all his speech was song),
he enchanted men and sometimes drove them mad.
He knew how to bind and loose the winds, and how
to conjure rain or roaring flame.

But his spirit partook too much of the air to flourish
in the mortals' world, and the time came when he
disappeared, passing wholly into the element from which
he long ago had come.

Graphics Thanks To: