Volume 153 — SIRENS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS.

What were the songs the Sirens sang Three thousand years ago or more, When their silvery voices rose and rang Over the ocean's wine-dark floor, And brought a strange perturbing pang To the heart of the wisest man of yore? Music and words have passed away, But a modern rhymer is free to guess What lent such wizardry to their lay, What gave it glamour and tenderness, And lured the hardy seaman astray From the paths of duty and toil and stress. They sang of the Zephyr's scented breeze, Of amber eve and star-strewn night, Of the moan of doves, the murmur of bees, Of water trickling from the height, And all that ministers to our ease And puts dull carking care to flight. They sang of banquets in gorgeous halls, Of raiment tinct with saffron dyes; Of ivory towers and crystal walls And beauty in many a wondrous guise, And all that fascinates and enthralls The saint and the sinner, the fool and the wise. Wily Ulysses at heart was sound— At least he was quite a family man; He faced the fatal music, but found An antidote to the risks he ran, For he sealed the ears of his crew, and bound Himself to the mast ere the song began. But the Siren who sang and slew is now The fable outworn of an age remote, And the women to whom to-day we bow Have long abjured her sinister note; She heals, she helps, she follows the plough, And her song has fairly earned her the vote.