The Mermaid

Would the sailors rather not have died?

Would they want to live without the maids

Of the sea, those concubines of their

Selfsame master? The men by the sea

Taken by the sea lived, yet for the last

Did they hate, did they love? The polar

Fear and joy mixed in the ocean to some

Recipe of eternal torment taken,

The elixir of life, to spare from death

And deliver to dull life those who drink.