While the sun was going down, 
There arose a fairy town. 
Not the town I saw by day, 
Cheerless, joyless, dull and gray, 
But a far, fantastic place, 
Builded with ethereal grace, 
Shimmering in a tender mist 
That the slanting rays had kissed 
Ere they let their latest fire 
Touch with gold each slender spire.
There no men and women be:
Mermen, maidens of the sea, 
Combing out their tangled locks, 
Sit and sing amound the rocks. 
As their ruddy harps they sound 
With the seaweed twisted round, 
In the shining sand below 
See the city downward go!