Listen to an audio version of this poem as read by Daniel Cabena.
I was well past child-bearing years
and children had, though only three,
when I was walking on the strand
and a sea-grey selkie said to me,
O come away, my beautiful one,
arise and come away with me.
I am a man upon the land,
I am a selkie in the sea.
O how can I away with you?
A man I have, and children three.
If you had come when I was young
I would have gone away with thee.
And home I went to my husband true
and bounced my babies on my knee,
but my dreams were full of the selkie’s song
and the Eli, Eli of the sea.
So I went down to the shore again
and said, All right, I’ll go with thee:
come up and claim what is thine own.
No answer came from the seal-grey sea.
So I went home to my husband true
and sang to my beautiful children three,
I am a woman on the land,
I am a selkie in the sea.
O come away my beautiful one.
O why hast thou forsaken me?
