Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915). Yale Book of American Verse. 1912.
Oliver Wendell Holmes 18091894
Oliver Wendell Holmes102 The Ballad of the Oysterman
I
His shop was just upon the bank, his boat was on the tide;
The daughter of a fisherman, that was so straight and slim,
Lived over on the other bank, right opposite to him.
Upon a moonlight evening, a sitting in the shade; He saw her wave her handkerchief as much as if to say, “I ’m wide awake, young oysterman, and all the folks away.” “I guess I ’ll leave the skiff at home, for fear that folks should see; I read it in the story-book, that, for to kiss his dear, Leander swam the Hellespont,—and I will swim this here.” And he has clambered up the bank, all in the moonlight gleam; O there were kisses sweet as dew, and words as soft as rain,— But they have heard her father’s step, and in he leaps again! “’T was nothing but a pebble, sir, I threw into the water.” “And what is that, pray tell me, love, that paddles off so fast?” “It ’s nothing but a porpoise, sir, that ’s been a swimming past.” I ’ll get into my fishing-boat, and fix the fellow soon.” Down fell that pretty innocent, as falls a snow-white lamb, Her hair drooped round her pallid cheeks, like seaweed on a clam. And he was taken with the cramp, and in the waves was drowned; But Fate has metamorphosed them, in pity of their woe, And now they keep an oyster-shop for mermaids down below.