The Water Fairy.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 204, 21 May 1887, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Water Fairy.

The following poem illustrates one of those Gorman legends in which' a young Count is represented, while wandering by moonlight along the banks of the Rhine, to have been allured to liis destruction by -the enchanting song of ;& beautiful .water fairy :— The cool breeze was sighing, The calm water o'er Which silently flowed By the rock-beetling shore. The nightingale's.music Was whispered-around. And tho soft tuneful echoes Replied to the sound. The full moon was sailing Across tho calm sky, And the stars dimly shone From their watches on high, When a voice softly stole Through the greon waving trees, Moro sweet than the music Awoke by the bsoeze, And soft and melodious. With varyinur nates, The sound of a har.p Through the sultry air floats. The flowers seemed to listen, ThG echoes were etiill, And hushed in repeeo Was the purl of tlae rill. As the singer came gracefully Floating along, More alluring and ravishing Sounded her song. As it peals in hia,ear It fires all his soul. And his heart wildly beats, Without pause or cantroL And with madness he leaps The dark precipice <s'er,— A cry and a plunge, And tho Count is no more. Alas ! but for ever The dark, foaming wave Rolls silently over His watery grave. JBut Bhe, the destroyer. So gracef ul and fair. .•She smiled on the wave As though deatli was not there. And she sang— but of woe There was none in the strain, tQill the erase and the mountain : ' lie-echoed again. CADURCVR. :