Lorelei, Lorelei
Call to sailors drifting by
Who-o-o-o, who-o-o, come hither

While they're sailing a voice is wailing a beckoning tune
No use praying they'll all be paying a reckoning soon under the moon

Lorelei, Lorelei
Still the voices fade and die
Smiling with glee, into the sea they slither
Down in the depths profound
Where passionate joys are drowned
There lie the lovers wooed by the Loreli

All that is past, and now at last everything's altered and changed-about
Progress goes on, glamour has gone from where the schooners once ranged-about
Speed and power, hour by hour liners tower high
Onward churning, never turning for a yearning cry
Coal dust to grime
No one has time
For any simple romance at all

Beckoned and coo
Till they are blue
Mermaids have got no damned chance at all
Lorelei, Lorelei, sit around and weep and cry
Days are too long, everything's wrong completely

All the sirens in these environs are sorry they spoke
Coaling steamers are belching streamers of horrible smoke making them choke

Lorelei, Lorelei sadly sigh and wonder why
Every new ship gives them the slip so easily
What could be more obscene
Than vamping a sad marine
It is a languid let alone Lorelei