| And there were mermaids -- weren’t there? |
| --
|
| Sweet silver mermaids.
|
| All through that grey Trafalgar Square,
|
| Such silver mermaids.
|
| They were young, and they were fiar.
|
| They brushed their bronze and dusky hair,
|
| And whispered, Come, Sad Stephen, come and play here.
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| You will love, you will be loved.
|
| You will grow up, and do so much.
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| You will be strong, you will be sung.
|
| By all the mermaids. |
| Silver mermaids…
|
| And once they’d sung their satin song,
|
| They beckoned to me from the fog --
|
| They spread their arms and lifted
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| Pale-portrait faces… I was taken.
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| To their coral-cavern halls,
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| To rooms with oyster shells for walls,
|
| To sandy nooks, and pearly books, and ivory dolls…
|
| In ivory stalls, in ivory stalls…
|
| And there were mermaids -- weren’t there?
|
| Sweet silver mermaids.
|
| All through that wan, forgotten square,
|
| Silver mermaids.
|
| They were young, and they were fair.
|
| They brushed their bronze and dusky hair.
|
| And whispered, Come, Sad Stephen, come.
|
| And I was taken.
|
| Was I wrong? |
| Should I have run?
|
| I wanted all, I wanted young
|
| And portrait faces… I was taken.
|
| Did I love? |
| I didn’t care.
|
| Did I grow up? |
| Well, unaware.
|
| And was I strong? |
| And was I sung?
|
| How do I haunt Trafalgar fog
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| And find I want so much, still want --
|
| And no more mermaids.
|
| No more mermaids… |