The Merman
The Merman - context Summary
Published in 1830
An early, playful lyric in which the speaker imagines being a merman who sings by day and spends nights romancing mermaids and reveling in underwater music and treasures. The poem foregrounds fantasy, sensual delight, and the sea as a site of escape and communal merriment rather than threat. Its tone is exuberant and escapist, emphasizing imagined pleasures of a mythical, oceanic life.
Read Complete Analyses1 Who would be A merman bold, Sitting alone, Singing alone Under the sea, With a crown of gold, On a throne? 2 I would be a merman bold; I would sit and sing the whole of the day; I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of power; But at night I would roam abroad and play With the mermaids in and out of the rocks, Dressing their hair with the white sea-flower; And holding them back by their flowing locks I would kiss them often under the sea, And kiss them again till they kiss’d me Laughingly, laughingly; And then we would wander away, away To the pale-green sea-groves straight and high, Chasing each other merrily. 3 There would be neither moon nor star; But the wave would make music above us afar— Low thunder and light in the magic night— Neither moon nor star. We would call aloud in the dreamy dells, Call to each other and whoop and cry All night, merrily, merrily; They would pelt me with starry spangles and shells, Laughing and clapping their hands between, All night, merrily, merrily: But I would throw to them back in mine Turkis and agate and almondine: Then leaping out upon them unseen I would kiss them often under the sea, And kiss them again till they kiss’d me Laughingly, laughingly. Oh! what a happy life were mine Under the hollow-hung ocean green! Soft are the moss-beds under the sea; We would live merrily, merrily.
Almondine. This should be “almandine,” the word probably being a corruption of alabandina, a gem so called because found at Alabanda in Caria; it is a garnet of a violet or amethystine tint.
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