The Sea Faery

She was strange as the orchids that blossom     And glimmer and shower their balm     And bloom on the tropical ocean,     That crystals round islands of palm:     And she sang to and beckoned and bound me     With beauty immortal and calm.     She was wild as the spirits that banner,     Auroral, the ends of the Earth,     With polar processions, that battle     With Darkness; or, breathing, give birth     To Silence; and herd from the mountains     The icebergs, gigantic of girth.     She was silver as sylphids who blend with     The morning the pearl of their cheeks:     And rosy as spirits whose tresses     Trail golden the sunset with streaks:     An opaline presence that beckoned     And spake as the sea-rapture speaks:     "Come with me! come down in the ocean!     Yea, leave this dark region with me!     Come! leave it! forget it in thunder     And roll of the infinite sea!     Come with me! No mortal bliss equals     The bliss I shall give unto thee." . . .     And so it was then that she bound me     With witchcraft no mortal divines,     While softly with kisses she drew me,     As the moon draws a dream from the pines,     Down, down to her cavern of coral,     Where ever the sea-serpent twines.     And ever the creatures, whose shadows     Bulk huge as an isle on the sight,     Swim cloud-like and vast, without number,     Around her who leans, like a light,     And smiles at me sleeping, pale-sleeping,     Wrapped deep in her mermaiden might.