Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 4 — The Nereid

I

I saw one night a Nereid white Arise from her coral caves: Her sea-green curls were pale with pearls, And her limbs were veiled with the waves.

Through the moonlit foam I saw her come Up the billow-haunted shore-- And faint and sweet I heard her feet, Foam-like, through the surf's long roar;

While ever the wind and the rolling waves Kept time to her song of ocean caves, That she sang to her harp of mist and moon, Of moonbeam shell: this ocean tune:-- II

"Come follow, come follow, to caverns hollow, That sound with the sighing sea!

Come follow me o'er the waters hoar!

-- Come away, come away with me!

Come follow, oh, follow, to grottoes hollow, And caves that are ocean-whist, Where the sea-weeds twine and the star-fish shine, And the rosy corals twist.

"Come follow me home on the wandering foam, That rolls my world above!

My bosom shall bear thee safely where The Sea-nymphs dream of love.

They will lie at thy feet and thy heart shall beat To the music of their sighs;

They will lean to thy face and, like stars, thou shalt trace Their radiant, love-lit eyes.

"Come away, come away!

where, under the spray, The haliötis glows, The nautilus gleams and the sponge-grove dreams, And the crimson dulse like sunset streams, And the coral-forest grows.

Come away to my caves, my emerald caves, From the moon and the sun deep hid!

Forget the world, down under the waves,-- The world of man that sighs and slaves,-- Forget the world, there under the waves, In the arms of a Nereid!"