Not daring to appear, swam near, reached out
Their arms of glowing white, and touched the boat.
Charmed by the helplessness of sleep in me,
They chanted sea-hymns, and I, straightway, dreamed
Of tinkling fountains in my father's halls,
And how my lover sat beside me there,
Murmuring his words of love in my thrilled ear.
They rocked the bark, too, with their lily hands,
As tender mothers rock their cradled babes:
And one wild sea-nymph reached and touched my hair--
I saw her through my dream!--and one unstrung
The pearls from out her own wave-wetted locks,
And flung them by me.

"The fresh morn waked me;
A current, gentle as a musical sound,
Swept the boat onward, as by magic power.
At times I thought, perchance, the nymphs beneath
Propelled it, but when I recalled my dream,
I knew some freak of nature, or some law,
By me uncomprehended, did the work.
At night I heard the naiads, in a tone
As soft as shepherd's reed, sing ocean-songs;
And sometimes, in the day, above the wave
I for a moment saw a lovely face,
Pearled in a clinging mass of shell-wreathed hair,
Peering upon me with strange, smiling eyes.
Gay fishes, in the sunlight gleaming, swam
With playful fires of evanescent hues;
And birds did sometimes rest their weary wings