Part III
When seven long lonely months were gone,
The Mermaid to his cavern came,
No more misshapen from the zone,
But like a maid of mortal frame.
“O give to me that ruby ring,
That on thy finger glances gay,
And thou shalt hear the Mermaid sing
The song, thou lovest, of Colonsay.”—
“This ruby ring, of crimson grain,
Shall on thy finger glitter gay,
If thou wilt bear me through the main,
Again to visit Colonsay.”—
“Except thou quit thy former Love,
Content to dwell for aye with me,
Thy scorn my finny frame might move,
To tear thy limbs amid the sea.”—
“Then bear me swift along the main,
The lonely isle again to see,
And, when I here return again,
I plight my faith to dwell with thee.”—
An oozy film her limbs o’erspread,
While slow unfolds her scaly train.
With gluey fangs her hands were clad,
She lashed, with webbed fin, the main.
He grasps the Mermaid’s scaly sides,
As, with broad fin, she oars her way;
Beneath the silent moon she glides,
That sweetly sleeps on Colonsay.
Proud swells her heart! she deems, at last,
To lure him with her silver tongue,
And, as the shelving rocks she past,
She raised her voice, and sweetly sung.
In softer, sweeter strains she sung,
Slow gliding o’er the moonlight bay,
When light to land the Chieftain sprung,
To hail the Maid of Colonsay.
Oh! sad the Mermaid’s gay notes fell,
And sadly sink remote at sea!
So sadly mourns the writhed shell
Of Jura’s shore, its parent sea.
And ever as the year returns,
The charm-bound sailors know the day,
For sadly still the Mermaid mourns
The lovely Chief of Colonsay.
Dr. John Leyden. (Condensed)