Mermaids

O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears.

Mermaids are mythological aquatic creatures with a female human head and torso and the tail of a fish. Mermaids are represented broadly in folklore, literature and popular culture.

Sourced

• O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
  To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears.
  • William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors (c. 1592-94), Act III, scene 2, line 45.

• Since once I sat upon a promontory,
  And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
  Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
  That the rude sea grew civil at her song:
  And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
  To hear the sea-maid's music.
  • William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (c. 1595-96), Act II, scene 1, line 149.

• Who would be
  A mermaid fair,
  Singing alone,
  Combing her hair
  Under the sea,
  In a golden curl
  With a comb of pearl,
  On a throne?
  I would be a mermaid fair;
  I would sing to myself the whole of the day;
  With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair;
  And still as I comb I would sing and say,
  "Who is it loves me? who loves not me?"
  • Alfred Tennyson, The Mermaid; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 511.

• Slow sail'd the weary mariners and saw,
  Betwixt the green brink and the running foam,
  Sweet faces, rounded arms, and bosoms prest
  To little harps of gold; and while they mused
  Whispering to each other half in fear,
  Shrill music reach'd them on the middle sea.
  • Alfred Tennyson, The Sea Fairies; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 511.

• A mermaid found a swimming lad
  Picked him for her own,
  Pressed her body to his body,
  Laughed; and plunging down
  Forgot in cruel happiness
  That even lovers drown.
  • William Butler Yeats, "A Man Young And Old: III. The Mermaid" (1926).