Read "The Merman" by James Whitcomb Riley online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I. Who would be / A merman gay, / Singing alone, / Sitting alone, / With a mermaid's knee, / For instance -- hey -- / For a throne?
II. I would be a merman gay; / I would sit and sing the whole day long; / I would fill my lungs with the strongest brine, / And squirt it up in a spray of song, / And soak my head in my liquid voice; / I'd curl my tail in curves divine, / And let each curve in a kink rejoice.