| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| “The Seamaids’ Music” |
| | | Ernest Myers (b. 1844) |
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| ONE moment the boy, as he wander’d by night | |
| Where the far spreading foam in the moonbeam was white, | |
| One moment he caught on the breath of the breeze | |
| The voice of the sisters that sing in the seas. | |
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| One moment, no more: though the boy linger’d long, | 5 |
| No more might he hear of the mermaidens’ song, | |
| But the pine-woods behind him moan’d low from the land, | |
| And the ripple gush’d soft at his feet on the sand. | |
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| Yet or ever they ceas’d, the strange sound of their joy | |
| Had lighted a light in the breast of the boy: | 10 |
| And the seeds of a wonder, a splendor to be | |
| Had been breath’d through his soul from the songs of the sea. | |
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