The mermaid is a water-dwelling being, usually a beautiful maiden down to the waist, and fish-tailed below.  Some, however, have legs or two tails, and the tails may be fishlike, dolphinlike, or snaky.  She sings beautifully and plays the harp.  They can be found sunning themselves on the sand or rocks, while looking in a mirror and arranging their hair with a comb.  They usually live in the sea, but some are found in lakes, rivers, wells and other watery places.

During the Elizabethan era, the interest in mermaids was stimulated along with sea exploration.  Mermaids became a symbol for a nation winning riches from sea voyages, and so were included in many coats of arms granted during this period.

Leagues, leagues over the sea I sail couched on a wallowing dolphin's tail.  The sky is
on fire, the waves a-sheen, I dabble my foot in the billows green.

In a sea-weed hat on the rocks I sit, where tern and sea-mew glide and beat, and
where dark shadows the cormorants meet.

In caverns cool when the tide's a wash, I sound my conch to the watery splash.  From
out their grottos at evenings beam, the mermaids swim with locks agleam.

To where I watch on the yellow sands, and they pluck sweet music with sea-cold
hands.  They bring me coral and amber clear.  But when the stars in heaven appear,
their music ceases, they glide away.  They swim for their grottos across the bay.  Then
listen only to my shrill tune, the surfy tide, and the wondering moon.
Walter de la Mare

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music.
William Shakespeare

The Mermaid

She must just have left the sea
Her hair and lips
Smelled of the sea till the morning
Her rising and falling breast was like the sea

I knew she was poor-
But you can't talk of poverty all the time
Gently, next to my ear
She sang songs of love

Who knows what she has learned and experienced
In her life fighting the sea
Patching fish nets, casting fish nets, gathering fish nets
To remind me of spiny fish
Her hands touched my hands

That night I saw, I saw it in her eyes,
How lovely the sea has risen in the open sea
Her hair taught me about waves
I tossed and tossed around in dreams
-Orthan Veli

In the crystal stream of ocean
Fishes glide with tranquil motion,
Float in life that's sorrow free;
Yet your throngs, in splendor moving,
Show your festal spirit, proving
How much more than these ye be.
.....Goethe, Faust/Part II

He listened in thrall to the song of the siren,
Her voice like a star as it flew through the air.
He drowned in her eyes as she called him to follow,
And likened the sun to the gold of her hair.

She swept up her arms and held him close to her,
Her soft lips caressing the lines on his brow.
He could not resist her, a magic had trapped him,
And nothing could save him, for she had him now.

She pulled him down with her into the clear water,
He gasped as death started the grip on his soul.
His life ebbed away as she dragged him still further,
And laughed when she saw she'd accomplished her goal.
-Charlotte Lester

Mermaid Globe from Amy's Graphics

Page last updated 9/23/00
Music playing is Nostalgia by Yanni