University of Virginia Library

THE SEA-QUEEN'S TOILET.

Under the sea, far under the sea,
In the emerald depths of the glorious sea,
Sits the Queen of the Mermaids, laughing and singing,
The pearly drops out of her golden hair wringing,
Weaving them all
In a coronal,
For the King of the Ocean, her husband to be.
Singing she weaves,
And her fair bosom heaves
With laughter and song, and music and mirth,
Happier far than being on earth.
There does she sit on her emerald throne,
Alone, all alone,
Weaving her lord a coronal bright
Of the drops from her hair, so pearly and white.
She wearies of solitude, laying aside
The wreath to be offered to husband from bride.
And now does she call,
From her inner hall,
Her mermaids and men,
From chambers and halls beyond human ken;
And this joyous band,
Maids and youths hand in hand,
At the feet of their queen throw them down, one by one;
Sure never was seen such a sight 'neath the sun.
The maidens all wear,
In their long waving hair,
Fairest drops of pure amber and opals and pearls,
That peep forth in beauty from out their long curls.
And some have blue eyes,
As pure as the skies;
And some have deep black, or voluptuous brown,
That low on the gem-scattered ground are cast down.
And their delicate lips are so fair and so red,
They seem as if stolen from some coral bed.
And the lovely Undines,
And the sweet river queens,
Are so dazzlingly fair,
As they bow themselves there,
That even they seem
Too bright for a dream.
But the Queen of the Mermaids is handsomer far
Than the Undines
Or Queens,
All bright as they are.
And now they all deck
With jewels her neck;
Here a drop of pure amber
From some inner chamber;
There a diamond rare
On her shoulder so fair;
And her arms and her dresses,
And her long golden tresses,
All glitter and shine
With the spoils of the mine.
But the topaz, so fair,
That they place in her hair,
Is not half as bright
As her curls, in the light
Of the golden-green sea.
And the coral they haste
To put in her waist,
Is not as red or as small
As her lips, when they call
To her maids in the hall;
And the pearls that they wreathe
Round her fair little head,
Are eclipsed by her teeth,
With their frame of red.