The Merman / Lord Alfred Tennyson

1

  Who would be

  A merman bold,

  Sitting alone,

  Singing alone

  Under the sea,

  With a crown of gold,

  On a throne?

2

  I would be a merman bold;

  I would sit and sing the whole of the day;

  I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of power;

  But at night I would roam abroad and play

  With the mermaids in and out of the rocks,

  Dressing their hair with the white sea-flower;

  And holding them back by their flowing locks

  I would kiss them often under the sea,

  And kiss them again till they kiss'd me

  Laughingly, laughingly;

  And then we would wander away, away

  To the pale-green sea-groves straight and high,

  Chasing each other merrily.

3

  There would be neither moon nor star;

  But the wave would make music above us afar--

  Low thunder and light in the magic night--

  Neither moon nor star.

  We would call aloud in the dreamy dells,

  Call to each other and whoop and cry

  All night, merrily, merrily;

  They would pelt me with starry spangles and shells,

  Laughing and clapping their hands between,

  All night, merrily, merrily:

  But I would throw to them back in mine

  Turkis and agate and almondine: [1]

  Then leaping out upon them unseen

  I would kiss them often under the sea,

  And kiss them again till they kiss'd me

  Laughingly, laughingly.

  Oh! what a happy life were mine

  Under the hollow-hung ocean green!

  Soft are the moss-beds under the sea;

  We would live merrily, merrily.

[Foootnote 1: Almondine. This should be "almandine," the word probably being a corruption of alabandina, a gem so called because found at Alabanda in Caria; it is a garnet of a violet or amethystine tint. 'Cf.' Browning, 'Fefine at the Fair', xv., "that string of mock-turquoise, these 'almandines' of glass".]