And lashed, with webbed fin, the main.

“Dwell here, alone!” the Mermaid cried,

“And view far off the Sea-nymphs play;

Thy prison-wall, the azure tide,

Shall bar thy steps from Colonsay.

“Whene’er, like Ocean’s scaly brood,

I cleave, with rapid fin, the wave,

Far from the daughter of the flood,

Conceal thee in this coral cave.

“I feel my former soul return;