Volume 32 / Part 4 — THE SEA NYMPH'S SONG.

BY WILLIAM H. C. HOSMER.

Sound is he sleeping Far under the wave— Sea nymphs are keeping A watch for the brave: Deep was our grief and wild— Wilder our dirge When the doomed ocean child Drowned in the surge. Within a bright chamber His form we have laid; With spar, pearl and amber The walls are arrayed— Though high rolls the billow He wakes not at morn, And sponge for his pillow From rocks we have torn. I heard thy name spoken When down came the mast; His hold was then broken, That word was his last. A picture is lying, Lorn maid! on his breast— That picture in dying His hand closely prest. Why turns thy cheek paler These tidings to know? The truth of thy sailor Should lessen thy wo: The wave could not chill it That stifled his breath; Pure love—can aught kill it? Give answer, Oh, Death!