THE BALLAD OF SEMERWATER
Deep asleep, deep asleep,
Deep asleep it lies,
The still lake of Semerwater
Under the still skies
And many a fathom
Many a fathom
Many a fathom below,
In a king’s tower and a queens bower
The fishes come and go
Once there stood by Semerwater
A mickle town and tall;
Kings’s tower and queen’s bower
And the wakeman on the wall.
Came a beggar halt and sore:
“I faint for lack of bread!”
Kings tower and queen’s bower
Cast him forth unfed
He knocke’d at the door of eller’s cot,
The eller’s cot in the dale.
They gave him of their oatcake,
They gave him of their ale.
He cursed aloud that city proud,
He cursed it in its pride;
He has cursed it into Semerwater
There to Bide
King’s tower and queen’s bower,
And a mickle town and tall;
By glimmer of scale and gleam of fin
Folk have seen them all.
King tower and queen’s bower,
And weed and reed in the gloom;
And a lost city in Semerwater,
Deep asleep till Doom.
Sir William Watson