Shadows should darkly
     Enveil thy past delights and woes. 
       Forget, oh, forget them! 
     ’Tis thus that eve its shadows throws;
     But now, in noiseless night’s repose,
       Forget, oh, forget them!

       Slumber, oh, slumber! 
     No friend hast thou like kindly snow;
       Sleep is well for thee,
     For whom no second spring will blow;
     Then why, poor heart, still beating so? 
       Slumber, oh, slumber!

       Hush thee, oh, hush thee! 
     Resign thy life-breath in a sigh,
       Listen no longer,
     Life bids farewell to thee,—­then die! 
     Sad one, good night!—­in sweet sleep lie! 
       Hush thee, oh, hush thee!

     [She bursts into tears.]

     Would now that I might bid adieu to life;
     But, ah! no voice to me replies, “Sleep well!”

THE MERMAID

     Leaving the sea, the pale moon lights the strand. 
     Tracing old runes, a youth inscribes the sand. 
     And by the rune-ring waits a woman fair,
     Down to her feet extends her dripping hair.

     Woven of lustrous pearls her robes appear,
     Thin as the air and as the water clear. 
     Lifting her veil with milk-white hand she shows
     Eyes in whose deeps a deadly fire glows.

     Blue are her eyes:  she looks upon him—­bound,
     As by a spell, he views their gulf profound. 
     Heaven and death are there:  in his desire,
     He feels the chill of ice, the heat of fire.

     Graciously smiling, now she whispers low:—­
     “The runes are dark, would you their meaning know? 
     Follow! my dwelling is as dark and deep;
     You, you alone, its treasure vast shall keep!”

     “Where is your dwelling, charming maid, now say!”
     “Built on a coral island far away,
     Crystalline, golden, floats that castle free,
     Meet for a lovely daughter of the sea!”

     Still he delays and muses, on the strand;
     Now the alluring maiden grasps his hand. 
     “Ah!  Do you tremble, you who were so bold?”
     “Yes, for the heaving breakers are so cold!”

     “Let not the mounting waves your spirit change! 
     Take, as a charm, my ring with sea-runes strange. 
     Here is my crown of water-lilies white,
     Here is my harp, with human bones bedight.”

* * * * *

     “What say my Father and my Mother dear? 
     What says my God, who bends from heaven to hear?”
     “Father and Mother in the churchyard lie. 
     As for thy God, he deigns not to reply.”

     Blithely she dances on the pearl-strewn sand,
     Smiting the bone-harp with her graceful hand. 
     Fair is her bosom, through her thin robe seen,
     White as a swan beheld through rushes green,

     “Follow me, youth! through ocean deeps we’ll rove;
     There is my castle in its coral grove;
     There the red branches purple shadows throw,
     There the green waves, like grass, sway to and fro,