One evening as I walked alone by the river

The narrator sees a young woman weeping by the banks of the river. She is mourning her drowned lover, Jimmie Whelan, and asks him to come to her. He rises from the river and they embrace for the last time. She asks to join him, but he tells her this is a favour no mortal will grant. He will protect her all her life. She collapses by the riverbank, weeping