George Darley

The Mermaidens' Vesper Hymn

TROOP home to silent grots and caves!
    Troop home! and mimic as you go 
The mournful windings of the waves
    Which to their dark abysses flow.

At this sweet hour, all things beside
    In amorous pairs to covert creep; 
The swans that brush the evening tide
    Homeward in snowy couples keep.

In his green den the murmuring seal
    Close by his sleek companion lies; 
While singly we to bedward steal,
    And close in fruitless sleep our eyes.

In bowers of love men take their rest,
    In loveless bowers we sigh alone, 
With bosom friends are others blest--
    But we have none! but we have none!