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Title: The Mermaid
Author: Walter R. Cassels [
More Titles by Cassels]
A mermaid smoothing her sunny hair,
Fanned by the breath of the summer air,
Sang to me,--"Love, wilt thou go with me
"Down to the depths of the purple sea?"--
"Maiden, ah yes! I will go with thee,
"And lap my soul in felicity!"
Down we went through the crystal waters
Evermore waving round Neptune's daughters,
Down, till the light of the starry sky
Melted away like an echoed sigh,
And the rapt breast of the restless ocean
Sank into still dreams of past emotion,
Down, and we stood on a pleasant shore
Paven with shells from the Naiad's store,
Shining and rosy-lipp'd such as keep
The mermaid's songs for their balmy sleep.
Flowers there were set with sparkling gems,
Gleaming amid the white coral stems,
And flinging their measure of light and scent
Up through the translucent firmament.
And as the air by a bird's wing laven,
Or a deep pool by a white hand waven,
Floated the swells of the dewy tide
Round the sea-maiden and me beside.
Onward we went where a diamond portal
Kept the pure light of the dawn immortal,
Making the heart sicken o'er to win
The halcyon joys it enclosed within;
Entered we under its arching sweep
Into the palace hall of the deep,
Where 'neath the vault of its lofty dome
Have the nymphs and mermen gay their home;
There sat old Neptune upon his throne,
A foaming wave that was turn'd to stone,
And round about him his merry crew
With brimming cups of the purple dew;
Wandering far through the lumin'd halls,
Where light was bred in the ruby walls,
Stray'd the fair Naiads with golden hair,
That wanton'd about in the perfumed air;
And flowing robes round their white limbs waved,
Like moonbeams bright into substance laved.
Neptune in tones that spread far and wide,
"Ho! Ho! a man with a mermaid bride!"
And the blue dome rung with cruel laughter,
Till all the arches mutter'd it after;
Then came the nymphs in a radiant string,
And circled us round like Saturn's ring,
Forms that appearing to mortal eyes
Dazzle them so that the spirit dies.
Then to my mermaid old Neptune saith,
"Hymn the rash mortal unto his death!"
She with a voice that murmuring stole
Deep as a heaven thought into my soul--
"O! in the land that is under the waves
"To dwell with my love in the coral caves,
"To bind his brows with a diamond zone,
"And call the light of his eyes mine own;
"To roam with him through the boundless space,
"And make the billow our resting place,
"There sing our songs till we fall asleep,
"And dream of Elysium in the deep;
"Waves are flowing for ever and ever,
"O they will rock us for ever and ever,
"Hush every sorrow to quiet rest,
"And pillow love in each other's breast;
"O they will sink us deeper and deeper,
"Until they themselves sleep with the sleeper,
"Until there is only love awake,
"That cannot sleep for his own sweet sake;
"Come in my bosom, then, come with me,
"Down to the depths of the purple sea!"
All my soul thrill'd and panted for bliss
As pilgrims thirst in the wilderness;
I cried, "O maiden, whose softest sighs
"Are sweeter than all Earth's melodies,
"If thou wilt wander with me for ever,
"And naught have power our true hearts to sever,
"I shall forget all that earth calls fair,
"And all that I fondly treasured there,
"The meadows and hills and sunny dells,
"And the birds and fragrant heather-bells,
"And I will follow thee through the deep,
"Where waves shall rock us to tender sleep;
"All powers of ocean I will defy,
"And follow thee though it be but to die!"
Neptune then, "Youth thou hast bravely said,
"And meet art thou with a nymph to wed,
"So thou shalt live out thy little span
"Unscathed by the hands of the blithe merman."
So they bound me fast in cruel sleep,
And bore me silently from the deep,
And ne'er have I seen my mermaid more,
Though oft I watch for her on the shore.
[The end]
Walter R. Cassels's poem: Mermaid
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