Its boards were mammoth bone, — 1
Hid in her seaside mountains,
Forgotten or unkept,



96 General William Booth

Beneath its mighty covers
Her wrath against me slept.
And deeply I repented
Of brash and boyish crime,
Of murder of things lovely
Now and in olden tinfe.
I cursed my vain ambition,
My would-be worldly days,
And craved the paths of wonder,
Of dewy dawns and fays.
I cried, "Our love was boundless,
Eternal as the sea,

Queen, reverse the sentence.
Come back and master me!"

The book was by the cliff-side
Upon its edge upright.
1 laid me by it softly.
And wept throughout the night.
And there at dawn I saw it.
No book now, but a door.
Upon its panels written,

"Judgment is no more."

The bolt flew back with thunder,

I saw within that place

A mermaid wrapped in seaweed

With Mab's immortal face,



Nicholas Vachel Lindsay 97

Yet grown now to a woman,
A woman to the knee.
She cried, she clasped me fondly.
We soon were in the sea.
Ah, she was wise and subtle,
And gay and strong and sleek,
We chained the wicked sword-fish,
We played at hide and seek.
We floated on the water,
We heard the dawn-wind sing,
I made from ocean-wonders.
Her bridal wreath and ring.
All mortal girls were shadows,
AH earth-life but a mist.
When deep beneath the maelstrom.
The mermaid's heart I kissed.
I woke beside the church-door
Of our small inland town,
Bowing to a maiden
In a pansy-velvet gown,
Who had not heard of fairies.
Yet seemed of love to dream.
We planned an earthly cottage
Beside an earthly stream.
