{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/the-forsaken-merman",
 "title": "The Forsaken Merman",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "the-strayed-reveller",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 9,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1849,
  "venue": "The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems (1849)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/strayedrevellero00arno"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/matthew-arnold_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmatthewar00arnouoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofm00arn",
   "https://archive.org/details/inmemoriamawrea00marsgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 143,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 57,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Come, dear children, let us away;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down and away below.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now my brothers call from the bay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now the great winds shoreward blow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now the salt tides seawards flow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now the wild white horses play,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Children dear, let us away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This way, this way.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Call her once before you go.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Call once yet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a voice that she will know:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Margaret! Margaret!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Children’s voices should be dear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Call once more) to a mother’s ear:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Children’s voices, wild with pain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surely she will come again.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Call her once and come away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This way, this way.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Mother dear, we cannot stay.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wild white horses foam and fret.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Margaret! Margaret!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come, dear children, come away down.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Call no more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One last look at the white-wall’d town,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the little grey church on the windy shore.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then come down.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She will not come though you call all day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come away, come away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Children dear, was it yesterday",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We heard the sweet bells over the bay?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the caverns where we lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the surf and through the swell,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The far-off sound of a silver bell?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the winds are all asleep;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the spent lights quiver and gleam;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the salt weed sways in the stream;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the sea-beasts, rang’d all round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the sea-snakes coil and twine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dry their mail and bask in the brine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where great whales come sailing by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sail and sail, with unshut eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round the world for ever and aye?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When did music come this way?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Children dear, was it yesterday?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Children dear, was it yesterday",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Call yet once) that she went away?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once she sate with you and me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the youngest sate on her knee.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She comb’d its bright hair, and she tended it well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When down swung the sound of a far-off bell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She sigh’d, she look’d up through the clear green sea.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She said; “I must go, for my kinsfolk pray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the little grey church on the shore to-day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twill be Easter-time in the world⁠—ah me!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I said; “Go up, dear heart, through the waves;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She smil’d, she went up through the surf in the bay.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Children dear, was it yesterday?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Children dear, were we long alone?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long prayers,” I said, “in the world they say.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come!” I said, and we rose through the surf in the bay.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We went up the beach, by the sandy down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white-wall’d town.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the narrow pav’d streets, where all was still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the little grey church on the windy hill.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But we stood without in the cold blowing airs.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We climb’d on the graves, on the stones, worn with rains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And we gaz’d up the aisle through the small leaded panes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She sate by the pillar; we saw her clear:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Margaret, hist! come quick, we are here.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear heart,” I said, “we are long alone.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, ah, she gave me never a look,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For her eyes were seal’d to the holy book.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Loud prays the priest; shut stands the door.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come away, children, call no more.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come away, come down, call no more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Down, down, down.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Down to the depths of the sea.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She sits at her wheel in the humming town,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singing most joyfully.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hark, what she sings; “O joy, O joy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the humming street, and the child with its toy.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the priest, and the bell, and the holy well.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the wheel where I spun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the blessed light of the sun.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so she sings her fill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singing most joyfully,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the shuttle falls from her hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the whizzing wheel stands still.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She steals to the window, and looks at the sand;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And over the sand at the sea;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And her eyes are set in a stare;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And anon there breaks a sigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And anon there drops a tear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From a sorrow-clouded eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a heart sorrow-laden,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A long, long sigh;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the gleam of her golden hair.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come away, away children.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Come children, come down.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hoarse wind blows colder;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lights shine in the town.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She will start from her slumber",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When gusts shake the door;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She will hear the winds howling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will hear the waves roar.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We shall see, while above us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The waves roar and whirl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A ceiling of amber,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A pavement of pearl.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singing, “Here came a mortal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But faithless was she.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And alone dwell for ever",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The kings of the sea.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, children, at midnight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When soft the winds blow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When clear falls the moonlight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When spring tides are low:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When sweet airs come seaward",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From heaths starr’d with broom;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And high rocks throw mildly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the blanch’d sands a gloom:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up the still, glistening beaches,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up the creeks we will hie;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over banks of bright seaweed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ebb-tide leaves dry.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We will gaze, from the sand-hills,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the white, sleeping town;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the church on the hill-side⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then come back down.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Singing: “There dwells a lov’d one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But cruel is she.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She left lonely for ever",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The kings of the sea.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}