English poem
The Tides
by Albert W. Smith (1856–1942)
The ocean had, in days of yore, A very dirty, mussy shore From Newfoundland to Singapore.
When mermaids wished to go to land, To sit and sing upon the strand, They had to flop through slimy sand.
When Neptune saw this, it befell, He took his dolphin team and shell And sped away across the swell.
He went to every sea and bay, And gave his orders all the way From Greenland’s rim to far Cathay;--
And now the tides rise up and roar, And twice a day they wash the shore From Newfoundland to Singapore;
And beaches lie all clean and fair, Where mermaids sing and take the air With tidy tails and streaming hair.