  Were the tales they told absurd, Random tags for a child’s ear? Soon I mocked at all I heard, Though with cause indeed for fear. Of the mermaids’ doleful game In deep water I heard tell, Of lofty dragons blowing flame, Of the hornÈd fiend of Hell. Now I have met the mermaid kin And find them bound by natural laws, They have neither tail nor fin, But are the deadlier for that cause. Dragons have no darting tongues, Teeth saw-edged nor rattling scales, No fire issues from their lungs, Poison has not slimed their tails. But they are creatures of dark air, Unsubstantial tossing forms, Thunderclaps of man’s despair In mid whirl of mental storms. And there’s a true and only fiend Worse than prophets prophesy, Whose full powers to hurt are screened Lest the race of man should die. Ever in vain may courage plot The dragon’s death with shield and sword, Or love abjure the mermaid grot, Or faith be fixed in one blest word. Mermaids will not be denied Of our last enduring shame, The dragon flaunts his unpierced hide, The fiend makes laughter with God’s Name. |
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