Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By The Mermaids SongHannah F. Gould (17891865)
C
And hide thee under the wave—
For I have a bed of coral for thee;
And quiet and sound shall thy slumbers be
In a cell in the Mermaid’s cave.
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.
As the tempest and ocean roar;
And weeps when she hears the menacing gale,
Or sighs to behold her mariner’s sail
Come whitening up to the shore.
Her sorrows shall soon be o’er;
For, the cord shall be broke and the prisoner free,
Her eye shall close; and her dreams will be
So sweet she will wake no more!