THE MERMAID'S SONG.
Reading edition
Oh, what comes flowing over the sea
In the hush of the evening's cool?
It is a mermaid singing to me
As she sits in a silver pool.
As she sits in a silver pool and sings
Of the world I never shall see,
Where the dulse-weed clings,
And the star-fish rings
The red anemone;
The world which lies
Where human eyes
Are never allowed to see
The gold and gems
And fluted stems
Of the crimson coral tree—
Is that what she sings to me?
She is haunting and holding my heart with a strain,
Where joy lies asleep in the shadow of pain;
And the world that is under the sea
Is spreading its pleasures and treasures to gain
The love that lies dormant in me—
The love that I bear for the sea,
For the secret and sorrowful sea;
Is luring my feet from the gray land again
And filling my soul with the scent of the main,
The sound and the scent of the sea;
And the speech of the siren is spoken in vain,
For that mermaid is singing to me
Of the world that is under the sea;
And the love that I bear for the ocean again,
For the mournful and mutable sea,
Has taken possession of me:
My heart is enmeshed in the mystical strain
That mermaid is singing to me
Of the world that lies under the sea.
Ah, hark again! In a sadder strain
She is singing a song to me—
A song of the unseen sea;
She is singing of ships whose wrecks have lain
For ages in the sea,
In the depths of the sunless sea;
And her voice is soft with a thought of the pain
That song is giving to me.
A thought that I thought forever had lain
In the depths of the soundless sea
Is searching my soul in that mermaid's strain
And bringing a sorrow to me
From the world that is under the sea.
For I have a friend whose bones have lain
For ages in the sea,
(For so it seems to me),
And her song has opened that wound again
And brought back a sorrow to me—
From the depths of the endless sea.
A grief that is grieving my life again,
A thought that I thought, forever had lain,
And never come back to me,
Is searching my soul in that mermaid's strain
And bringing a sorrow to me
From the world that lies under the sea.
Oh, what comes flowing over the sea
In the hush of the evening's cool?
It is a mermaid singing to me
As she sits in a silver pool.