Verses (Shorter)/The Little Brother
THE LITTLE BROTHER.
O brother, brother, come down to the crags by the bay,
Come down to the caves where I play;
For, oh! I saw on the rocks, asleep,
A fair mermaid, and the slow waves creep
To bear her away, away.
O brother, brother, come quick till you laugh with me,
For no mermaid so fair is she,
But the little lass that I saw last night
(I hid in the shade, you stood in the light),
And she weeping so bitterly.
O brother, brother, I watched her through the day,
Saw her hair grow jewelled with spray ;
Once her cheek was brushed by a gull's wet wing.
And a finch flew down on her hand to sing.
And was not afraid to stay.
O brother, brother, will she soon awakened be?
I would that she laugh with me.
She sleeps, and the world so full of sound—
She's so deaf, like the dead that are under the ground,
That I laugh and laugh to see.