Charles J. Locke

A MERMAID uprose in a golden dream,

And cried, “come, follow me”—

We glided away, on a swift moon-beam

To the brighest cave of the sea.

’T was the festal hall of the waves, and there

Bright gems were cluster’d round;

And glowing shells in the liquid air

Made melody of sound.

I danced with the spirits o’er diamond sands

And quaff’d of happiness;

And wore a robe which their fairy hands

Had twined of light and bliss.

I linger’d in ecstacy ’mid the grove

Of corals glancing bright,

And heard the pure song of the Mermaid’s love

For a star in fields of light.

The water-sprites gather’d around to hear

The song that seem’d to wail

With the harmony soft, of the shell-tones clear,

And the surface-sighing gale.

“Oh! come” sung the mermaid, “thou beauteous star,

Come o’er the distant sea;

The bright moon has vanish’d and sail’d afar,

And thou may’st come to me.

Oh! I have watch’d on the cold, cold rock,

And rode the ocean foam,

And laugh’d at the lightning and thunder-shock

As they crush’d my sparry home;

And have wish’d I could catch on the lightning-lance

And guide it back to thee,

For the moon-beam wearies and falls askance

Far e’er it gains thy sea.

I built me a grotto of tinted shells

All glean’d from ocean’s shores,

And sat there uttering fondest spells

’Mid howling tempest’s roars;

And I hoped thou would’st come—but I hope not now

For coldly thou didst smile,

And I gather’d some nightshade to bind my brow,

And my heart was sad the while.

Yet I love, pretty star, on the rock to sing

And twine in wreaths thy gleam”—

The moon sank down, the dark spread his wing,

And I woke from this lovely dream.