The beard and the hair
Of the river-god were

Seen through the torrent's sweep,
As he followed the light
Of the fleet nymph's flight

To the brink of the Dorian deep.

“Oh, save me! Oh, guide me!
And bid the deep hide me!

For he grasps me now by the hair!
The loud Ocean heard,
To its blue depths stirred,
And divided at her prayer:

And under the water

The Earth's white daughter

Fled like a sunny beam;

Behind her descended

Her billows, unblended

With the brackish Dorian stream.

Like a gloomy stain

On the emerald main,

Alpheus rushed behind,

As an eagle pursuing

A dove to its ruin

Down the streams of the cloudy wind.

Under the bowers

Where the Ocean Powers

Sit on their pearlèd thrones,
Through the coral woods

Of the weltering floods,

Over heaps of unvalued stones,

Through the dim beams

Which amid the streams

Weave a network of coloured light—

And under the caves

Where the shadowy waves

Are as green as the forest's night—
Outspeeding the shark

And the swordfish dark,
Under the ocean-foam,
And up through the rifts
And the mountain-clifts,

They passed to their Dorian home.

And now from their fountains

In Enna's mountains,

Down one vale-where the morning basks—
Like friends, once parted,

Grown single-hearted,

They ply their watery tasks.

At sunrise they leap

From their cradles steep

In the cave of the shelving hill;
At noontide they flow,
Through the woods below
And the meadows of asphodel;
And at night they sleep
In the rocking deep

Beneath the Ortygian shore,—
Like the spirits that lie
In the azure sky,

When they love but live no more.

1

SHELLEY.

MERMAIDS AND MERMEN.

Mermaids.

FATHOMS deep beneath the wave,
Stringing beads of glistening pearl;
Singing the achievements brave
Of many an old Norwegian earl;
Dwelling where the tempest's raving
Falls as light upon our ear
As the sigh of lover, craving
Pity from his lady dear,-
Children of Thule, we,

From the deep caves of the sea,
As the lark springs from the lea,
Hither come to share your glee.

Mermen.

From reining of the water-horse,

That bounded till the waves were foaming, Watching the infant tempest's course,

Chasing the sea-snake in its roaming;

The Greek fable is that Alpheus, a river-god, fell in violent love with Arethusa, a nereid. She disdained him; he pursued her; and Diana, to save the nymph, turned her into a fountain and Alpheus into a river. Greek legends have many instances of such changes.

From winding charge-notes on the shell,
When the huge whale and swordfish duel;
Or tolling shroudless seamen's knell,

When the winds and waves are cruel,—
Children of wild Thule, we

Have ploughed such furrows on the sea,
As the steer draws on the lea,-

And hither we come to share your glee.

Mermaids and Mermen.

We heard you in our twilight caves,
A hundred fathoms deep below;
For notes of joy can pierce the waves
That drown each sound of war and woe.
Those who dwell beneath the sea

Love the sons of Thule so well;

Thus, to aid your mirth, bring we
Dance and song and sounding shell.
Children of dark Thule, know

Those who dwell by haaf and voe,
Where your daring shallops row,
Come to share the festal row.

THE SEA FAIRIES.

SCOTT.

SLOW sailed the weary mariners and saw,
Betwixt the green brink and the running foam,
Sweet faces, rounded arms, and bosoms prest
To little harps of gold: And while they mused,
Whispering to each other, half in fear,

Shrill music reached them on the middle sea.

Whither away, whither away, whither away? Fly no more !

Whither away from the high green field and the happy blossoming shore?

Day and night to the billows the fountain calls;
Down shower the gambolling waterfalls

From wandering o'er the lea;

Out of the live green heart of the dells

They freshen the silvery crimson shells;

And, thick with white bells, the clover-hill swells
High over the full-toned sea.

Oh, hither-come hither and furl your sails,

F

Come hither to me, and to me;
Hither, come hither and frolic and play :
Here it is only the mew that wails.
We will sing to you all the day,—
Mariners, mariners, furl your sails;

For here are the blissful downs and dales;
And merrily, merrily carol the gales;

And the spangle dances in bight and bay;
And the rainbow forms and flies on the land,

Over the islands free:

And the rainbow lives in the curve of the sand-
Hither, come hither and see—

And the rainbow hangs on the poising wave;
And sweet is the colour of cove and cave,
And sweet shall your welcome be.

Oh, hither, come hither and be our lords,—

For merry brides are we.

We will kiss sweet kisses, and speak sweet words.
Oh, listen, listen, your eyes shall glisten

With pleasure and love and jubilee!

Oh, listen, listen, your eyes shall glisten,

When the sharp, clear twang of the golden chords

Runs up the ridged sea!

Who can light on as happy a shore,

All the world o'er-all the world o'er?

Whither away? Listen and stay.-Mariner, mariner, fly no more!

TENNYSON.

THE FORSAKEN MERMAN.

COME, dear children, let us away,—

Down and away below!

Now my brothers call from the bay;
Now the great winds shoreward blow;
Now the salt tides seaward flow;

Now the wild, white horses play,
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
Children dear, let us away-

This way, this way!

Call her once, before you go—

Call once yet!

In a voice that she will know,

"Margaret! Margaret!"

Children's voices should be dear
(Call once more) to a mother's ear;
Children's voices wild with pain-
Surely, she will come again!
Call her once, and come away-
This way, this way.

"Mother, dear, we cannot stay;

The wild, white horses foam and fret.” "Margaret! Margaret!"

Come, dear children,-come away down.
Call no more!

One last look at the white-walled town,

And the little, grey church on the windy hill, Then come down.

She will not come, though you call all day.-Come away! Come away!

Children dear, was it yesterday

We heard the sweet bells over the bay?——
In the caverns where we lay,

Through the surf and through the swell,
The far-off sound of a silver bell?-
Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep,
Where the winds are all asleep;

Where the spent lights quiver and gleam;
Where the salt weed sways in the stream;
Where the sea-beasts, ranged all round
Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground;
Where the sea-snakes coil and twine,
Dry their mail and bask in the brine;
Where great whales come sailing by,
Sail and sail, with unshut eye,

Round the world for ever and aye.
When did music come this way,
Children dear, was it yesterday?

Children dear, was it yesterday
(Call yet once) that she went away?

Once she sat with you and me

On a red-gold throne in the heart of the sea,

And the youngest sat on her knee.

She combed its bright hair, and she tended it well

When down swung the sound of a far-off bell.