THE MERMAID'S WELL.

A BALLAD.

The Mermaid's Well is a deep whirlpool on the shores of one of the Western Islands. Its edges are fringed with a peculiarly beautiful moss; and the sand, covered with innumerable shells, is of the most silvery brightness.

How sweetly Nature's varied charms
Seem to our varied moods assign'd;
As though the earth in all her forms
Held silent sympathy with Mind!

Love seeks the scented whispering shade,
Ambition haunts the courtly hall,
Warm Friendship loves the sacred glade
Where no intruding footsteps fall.

But chief by Ocean's wint'ry shore,
When wakening winds to waves reply,

Grief loves to wander, weeping o'er

Th' unclosing page of Memory.

For when with anxious thought opprest
We seek the sea-beach wild and lone,
In the stern strife of Ocean's breast,
There is a spell that soothes our own.

'Twas the hour of Sorrow's weeping thought, For echoing through the cavern'd rock, The winds across the waters brought

The midnight chime of th' Abbey clock.

Like a warning spirit's solemn tone
That bell swung o'er the sullen sea;
Till down the wind with hollow moan
It echoed faint and fitfully!

Slow stealing through the pathless blue
The moon rode up the starry sky,

And gemm'd each scanty flower that grew
Amid the cliffs that stood thereby.

Like some fair child's untroubled rest,
With locks of light all loosely bound,

On a rugged warrior's buckler'd breast
The moon-beams slept on the rocks around.

Bright, keen, and clear was all the air,
The sheeted lightning flashing free,
Blaz'd frequent through the welkin blue,
And flam'd across the fitful sea.

The winds howl'd through the rocky caves
Like demons wailing to the night,

Or with deafening roar swept o'er the shore,
Till the waves flew back in pale affright!

Where silvery weeds and many a shell
Strew all the margin of the sea,
Beside the unfathom'd Mermaid's Well,
A maiden knelt upon her knee.

Was it the spirit of some star,

Exil'd from her celestial home?

Or some ocean girl from her halls of pearl, Who had sprung in silence from the foam?

One snowy hand to her heart was press'd,
To still some grief that struggled there,
The other like a moon-beam trac'd

Some name in the sand with anxious care.

A fairy frame around the name

Of silver-fringed moss she drew; Long knelt she there, as if in prayer, And long her little task did view.

Her naked feet were whiter yet

Than the bells of foam that stood thereon;

The zone that clasp'd her yielding waist,

With costly gems and jewels shone.

Her brow, her cheek, each naked arm
And oh her bosom's brilliancy,

Were star-beams wove to woman's form

Not

purer would their radiance be!

Dark as the banners of the storm,

Her hair stream'd down the frozen wind; In her flashing eye you might espy

The wanderings of a maniac mind.

With arms outstretch'd to the starry train,
From her bended knee she lightly sprang,
And the tears ran down like summer rain,
As thus in accents low she sang:-

"Soft steal the moon-beams through the night, Soft steal the star-beams o'er the sea;

Oh! would they, pitying, veil their light,
They bring such thoughts of woe to me!

"For thus they seem to whisper low, Thus murmurs too the cavern'd main'Remember'd bliss is present woe,

When bliss we ne'er may know again.'

"Lost love-that simoon of the soul, Hath swept across my ruin'd mind;

Despair and darkness lie before,

Envenom'd wastes remain behind.

"How greenly Hope and Memory sprang,
Fresh o'er the dewy flower of Love—
How black and wither'd now they hang,
That tender perish'd flower above!

"Life, like the prophet's magic rod,
With downy buds of joy was crown'd;
Now hissing from the blasted sod,
It rears its snaky horrors round.

"Thou streaming star of dewy eve!

Thus rising o'er the cliff thou wert, When William vow'd, and I believ'd, And yielded up my virgin heart.

“We dipp'd our hands in the haunted wave, And, kneeling, call'd on thee to view The sacred pledge which here we gave,

To be to each for ever true.

"The Haunted Well is still the same,

Thou bright as when these vows were heard,

And mark'd our raptur'd mutual flame—
But where is he those transports shar`d?

“I've trac'd his name in the faithless sand,
Fit record of his faithless love!
The first wave springing o'er the strand

Will like his vows that name remove.