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1799–1845

THE WATER PERI'S SONG.

Thomas Hood

Farewell, farewell, to my mother's own daughter. The child that she wet-nursed is lapp'd in the wave; The Mussulman, coming to fish in this water, Adds a tear to the flood that weeps over her grave.

This sack is her coffin, this water's her bier, This grayish bath cloak is her funeral pall; And, stranger, O stranger! this song that you hear Is her epitaph, elegy, dirges, and all!

Farewell, farewell, to the child of Al Hassan, My mother's own daughter — the last of her race — She's a corpse, the poor body! and lies in this basin, And sleeps in the water that washes her face.

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THE WATER PERI'S SONG. · Thomas Hood · Poetry Cove