Songs of the Sea

[Carillon]

The loosely bound sheath of papers have little in common with one another, except the hand that scribed them and the fact that each contains one or more stanzas of poetry or verse. Some appear elven in origin, while others seem to be human songs or verses and are written in common. Occasionally they are accompanied by musical notation.

[Carillon]

Lament of the Sailor's Bride

My love has gone away to sea;
He sailed upon a fleeting tide.
The sea is a cruel Mistress
And I a weeping bride.

Married just a season,
But the sea sings a siren song
And those who seek to escape it
Never evade it long.

And so he woke one morning,
The call pounding in his heart
And told me that he loved me
And that we had to part.

I cannot say when he'll return
But I pray it will be soon.
Until then I wait by the lighthouse
Under the gleam of the twin moons.

The sea is a cruel Mistress
And I a weeping bride,
For my love, he sailed away to sea
And on that day, I died.

[Carillon]

The Poet To His Love
(an old sea elven romance)

Hear me, my love! This is thy song
I sing it for all to hear
That it might be carried on current and tide
Until it reach thy ear

Thou art a pearl of the sea, my love!
Thy beauty is without par
Thou art as graceful as a dolphin,
And delicate as a feather star

How shall I describe such beauty?
It shines like a gleaming scale
An irridescent sparkle in
A salmon's silver tail

Phosphorescence in dark water,
It illuminates my night.
How can I resist the enchanting charms
Of such a bewitching water sprite?

How must I prove my love for thee?
Send me beyond the sea!
I shall bring thee treasures from land to prove
My adoration for thee

I'll bring thee honey, sweet from combs
And flowers for thy hair
And birds to sing thee arias,
And silks for thee to wear.

I shall bring thee ancient books of lore
And fruits from foreign groves,
And incense of every known scent,
Vanilla, myrrh and cloves.

I shall carry such wealth home to thee,
Splendours from the world above,
But when they lie spoiled by water and salt
What endures shall be my love.

[Carillon]

Proverb

The sea, she holds a thousand sorrows
And a thousand joys and fears.
She is vast enough to hold all our pain
And swallow up our tears.

And when the storms crash above
Or when we rage and wail,
Her gentle waters will guide us back
For love always prevails.

[Carillon]

In the same handwriting that the verse is in is a short tale, very romantic, of a sea elf and a sailor who fall in love. They meet in a secluded cove in secret, but they are discovered by the sailor's shipmates one night. The young sailor is in bondservice to the captain of the ship, and the captain, fearing Mist's wrath if one of his crew associates with one of Shindaleria's people, forbids him to see her. Heartbroken, the sailor can do nothing but abide by the captain's wishes, and the mourning elf composes this simple song.


The Sea Elf To Her Sailor

When love can teach a bird to swim
Far below the halcyon sea,

When love can teach a fish to fly
And give wings to set it free,

When love can teach my heart the song
Of the lark in yonder rosewood tree,

Then love will build a golden bridge
And I shall cross to thee.


A brief postscript is added after the song, noting an alternate ending the scribe heard. It says that a few years later, having paid for his bond in full, the sailor is walking in a foreign port when he passes a bird singing in a tree. He starts in surprise, for the bird seems to be singing with a woman's voice. The bird takes flight and he follows it a short distance to a secluded beach and there, waiting by the shore, is his love.

[Carillon]

Untitled
For Aylana

The ocean teems with life tonight;
A turtle passes by.
I wonder, is she bound for shore
To mate beneath the sky?

A snake weaves through the seagrass
with sinuous lethal grace,
But he does not turn to deal death's kiss
With venemous embrace.

A jellyfish waves its trailing fronds
Of incongruous pink,
Startling the cowardly squid nearby
who hides in clouds of ink.

The parrotfish paint their rainbows
A hundred colours bright
While the butterfly fish float together,
Home never far from sight.

The currents part the seaweed
And its secrets are revealed:
I spy a spiny urchin and his
Thousand-needle shield.

Crabs scuttle on the ground below
In their quick-step sideways dance
While two damsels flit and flirt above
And waltz their own romance.

The anemone reaches for a meal
With a hundred grasping hands
While the seastars mirror the sky above
On the wide expansive sands.

Somewhere a shark is hunting blood
And will not be denied--
But all is right within my heart
For you are at my side.

*signed with an elegant C*