DisplayImage("text", "zpage106", "
", "
", "center", "70", "5", "5", "[Illustration]") ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Forsaken Merman") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PagePoem(106, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come, dear children, let us away, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Down and away below!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now my brothers call from the bay, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now the great winds shoreward blow, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now the salt tides seaward flow; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Now the wild white horses play, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Champ and chafe and toss in the spray. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Children dear, let us away!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This way, this way! ", "") ?>
PagePoem(107, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Call her once before you go—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Call once yet!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In a voice that she will know: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Margaret! Margaret!\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Children's voices should be dear ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "(Call once more) to a mother's ear; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Children's voices, wild with pain—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Surely she will come again!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Call her once, and come away; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This way, this way!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Mother dear, we cannot stay!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The wild white horses foam and fret.\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Margaret! Margaret!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come, dear children, come away down; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Call no more!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "One last look at the white-wall'd town,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the little grey church on the windy shore; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then come down!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She will not come though you call all day; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come away, come away!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Children dear, was it yesterday", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We heard the sweet bells over the bay? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the caverns where we lay,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Through the surf and through the swell, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The far-off sound of a silver bell? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the winds are all asleep;", "") ?>
PagePoem(108, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the spent lights quiver and gleam, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the salt weed sways in the stream, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the sea-beasts, ranged all round ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the sea snakes coil and twine, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Dry their mail and bask in the brine; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where great whales come sailing by, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sail and sail, with unshut eye,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Round the world for ever and aye? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When did music come this way? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Children dear, was it yesterday?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Children dear, was it yesterday ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "(Call yet once) that she went away? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Once she sate with you and me,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the youngest sate on her knee.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She comb'd its bright hair, and she tended it well, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When down swung the sound of a far-off bell.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She sigh'd, she look'd up through the clear green sea;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She said: \"I must go, for my kinsfolk pray ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the little grey church on the shore to-day. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "'Twill be Easter-time in the world—ah me! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I lose my poor soul, Merman! here with thee.\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I said: \"Go up, dear heart, through the waves;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves!\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She smiled, she went up through the surf in the bay. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Children dear, was it yesterday?", "") ?>
PagePoem(109, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Children dear, were we long alone?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Long prayers,\" I said, \"in the world they say; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come\"! I said; and we rose through the surf in the bay.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We went up the beach, by the sandy down", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the sea stocks bloom, to the white-wall'd town; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Through the narrow pav'd streets, where all was still, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To the little grey church on the windy hill.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the church came a murmur of folks at their prayers,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But we stood without in the cold blowing airs.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We climb'd on the graves, on the stones worn with rains, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And we gazed up the aisle through the small leaded panes.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She sate by the pillar; we saw her clear:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Margaret, hist! come quick; we are here! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Dear heart, \" I said, \"we are long alone:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan.\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But, ah, she gave me never a look,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For her eyes were seal'd to the holy book! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Loud prays the priest: shut stands the door. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come away, children, call no more! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come away, come down, call no more!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Down, down, down!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Down to the depths of the sea!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She sits at her wheel in the humming town, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Singing most joyfully.", "") ?>
PagePoem(110, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hark what she sings: \"O joy, O joy,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the humming street, and the child with its toy!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the priest, and the bell, and the holy well;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the wheel where I spun,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the blessèd light of the sun!\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And so she sings her fill.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Singing most joyfully,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till the spindle drops from her hand, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the whizzing wheel stands still. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She steals to the window, and looks at the sand, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And over the sand at the sea;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And her eyes are set in a stare; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And anon there breaks a sigh, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And anon there drops a tear, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From a sorrow-clouded eye, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a heart sorrow laden,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A long, long sigh;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the gleam of her golden hair.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come away, away, children; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Come, children, come down!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The hoarse wind blows colder; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lights shine in the town.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She will start from her slumber", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When gusts shake the door;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She will hear the winds howling, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Will hear the waves roar.", "") ?>
PagePoem(111, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We shall see, while above us ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The waves roar and whirl, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A ceiling of amber,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A pavement of pearl.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Singing: \"Here came a mortal,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But faithless was she!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And alone dwell forever ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The kings of the sea.\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But, children, at midnight, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When soft the winds blow, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When clear falls the moonlight, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When springtides are low; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When sweet airs come seaward ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From heaths starr'd with broom, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And high rocks throw mildly ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On the blanch'd sands a gloom; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Up the still, glistening beaches, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Up the creeks we will hie,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Over banks of bright seaweed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The ebb-tide leaves dry.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We will gaze, from the sand hills, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At the white, sleeping town;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At the church on the hillside—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And then come back down. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Singing: \"There dwells a lov'd one, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But cruel is she!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She left lonely for ever ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The kings of the sea.\"", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("85", SmallCapsText("—Matthew Arnold.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>