The Mermaid's Song

By Hannah Flagg Gould

Come, mariner, down in the deep with me,
And hide thee under the wave;
For I have a bed of coral for thee,
And quiet and sound shall thy slumber be
In a cell in the Mermaid's cave!

On a pillow of pearls thine eye shall sleep,
And nothing disturb thee there;
The fishes their silent vigils shall keep;
There shall be no grass thy grave to sweep,
But the silk of the Mermaid's hair.

And she, who is waiting with cheeks so pale,
As the tempest and the ocean roar,
And weeps when she hears the menacing gale,
Or sighs to behold her mariner's sail
Come whitening up to the shore --

She has not long to linger for thee!
Her sorrows will soon be o'er;
For the cord shall be broken, the prisoner free;
Her eye shall close, and her dreams will be
So sweet, she will wake no more!