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| TO Rathlin’s Isle I chanced to sail, | |
| When summer breezes softly blew, | |
| And there I heard so sweet a tale, | |
| That oft I wished it could be true. | |
| They said, at eve, when rude winds sleep, | 5 |
| And hushed is every turbid swell, | |
| A mermaid rises from the deep, | |
| And sweetly tunes her magic shell. | |
| |
| And while she plays, rock, dell, and cave | |
| In dying falls the sound retain, | 10 |
| As if some choral spirits gave | |
| Their aid to swell her witching strain. | |
| Then summoned by that dulcet note, | |
| Uprising to the admiring view, | |
| A fairy island seems to float | 15 |
| With tints of many a gorgeous hue. | |
| |
| And glittering fanes and lofty towers | |
| All on this fairy isle are seen; | |
| And waving trees and shady bowers, | |
| With more than mortal verdure green. | 20 |
| And as it moves, the western sky | |
| Glows with a thousand varying rays; | |
| And the calm sea, tinged with each dye, | |
| Seems like a golden flood of blaze. | |
| |
| They also say, if earth or stone | 25 |
| From verdant Erin’s hallowed land | |
| Were on this magic island thrown, | |
| Forever fixed it then would stand. | |
| But when for this some little boat | |
| In silence ventures from the shore, | 30 |
| The mermaid sinks, hushed is the note, | |
| The fairy isle is seen no more! | |
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