Fair Agnes alone on the sea-shore stood,
Then rose a Merman from out the flood:
“Now, Agnes, hear what I say to thee,
Wilt thou my leman consent to be?”
“O, freely that will I become,
If thou but take me beneath the foam.”
He stopp’d her ears, and he stopp’d her eyes,
And into the ocean he took his prize.
The Merman’s leman was Agnes there,—
She bore him sons and daughters fair:
One day by the cradle she sat and sang,
Then heard she above how the church bells rang:
She went to the Merman, and kiss’d his brow;
“Once more to church I would gladly go.”
“And thou to church once more shalt go,
But come to thy babes back here below.”
He flung his arm her body around,
And he lifted her up unto England’s ground.
Fair Agnes in at the church door stepp’d,
Behind her mother, who sorely wept.