Monday 20 September 2010

A Man Young And Old: III. The Mermaid


A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.

William Butler Yeats

5 comments:

  1. May I be the first to note he most likely died happily with a smile on his face ??!!! xxx

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  2. That Yeats was a ball of laughs wasn't he?

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  3. Am I the only one who is beginning to sense a kind of truly unhealthy obsession with with unreal fishlike women and siren-sea nymphs here?

    e.e. cummings is the barometer dropping rapidly on this pices fantasy. Heed. Stay away from the light.

    Let it go, Souby. Back away slowly...

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  4. Well, y'know, I was just about all mermaided out there, but hey...

    RDG: We'll never know... "Dead men tell no tails"
    Did she take him to meet her cod-father? No, I shouldn't be flippant, poor lad. A watery grave.

    Adullamite: You benighted heathen. William Butler Yeats wrote some lines of great beauty.
    He could be doom-laden, it's true, but what about "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven"?

    Max: I can hear them singing, beyond the surge of the shore, O listen, they're calling me and I must go.....
    Well, no... I mean, the sea's sixty miles away, but sometimes, hmmm...
    Good grief man, what have you got against e e cummings?

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  5. I'm siding with Max on this one, Soubry. xxx

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