The Kelp Maid’s Song

To hear a midi of this song, click [here].

The Kelp Maid's Song

I’m a little kelp maid.

In kelp all arrayed.

And once lived on the billowy wave

Where from morning till night

Through days long and bright

I rode on the crest of the wave.

The smooth rolling crest of the wave.

On a kelp bed at night.

In the soft moonlight.

Sweet lullabies soothed me to sleep.

And through nights beyond compare

Mermaids combing silken hair

Sang lullabies to sooth me to sleep,

Tender lullabies to sooth me to sleep.

But I yearned for the land

With its shores of yellow sand

With a restlessness born of the sea.

As I watched the distant shore

I longed to go there more and more

With that restlessness born of the sea,

That awful restlessness born of the sea.

Till one momentous day

A wave carried me away

To the land where I had always longed to be

To the strip of yellow sand

On the border of the land

The dry land where I’d always longed to be,

The dry land where I’d always longed to be.

But I am not happy yet.

Now I long for the wet.

For the soft soothing dampness of the waves.

My gown once soft and fair to see

Is now as dry as dry can be

Which makes me sigh for the dampness of the waves,

The soft soothing dampness of the waves.

On a bit of kelp I stand

Ever reaching out my hand

Toward the kelp beds so far out at sea

And for the mermaids’ song

I listen all night long

For the songs of the mermaids at sea.

Round the kelp beds far out at sea.

Though I am doom’d to stay

On this dry land far away

My heart ever turns toward the sea

For my awful discontent

My life in dryness must be spent

While my heart ever turns toward the sea,

Turns longingly out toward the sea.


MORNING-GLORY LADIES