The Reliquary By Bernard and Lucy Barton. With A Prefatory Appeal for Poetry and Poets |
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THE SEA SHELL. |
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 | The Reliquary |  |
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THE SEA SHELL.
Hast thou heard of a shell on the margin of ocean,
Whose pearly recesses the echoes still keep
Of the music it caught when with tremulous motion,
It joined in the concert pour'd forth by the deep?
Whose pearly recesses the echoes still keep
Of the music it caught when with tremulous motion,
It joined in the concert pour'd forth by the deep?
And fables have told us when far inland carried
To the waste sandy desert, or dark ivied cave,
In its musical chambers some murmurs have tarried
It learn'd long before of the wind and the wave.
To the waste sandy desert, or dark ivied cave,
In its musical chambers some murmurs have tarried
It learn'd long before of the wind and the wave.
Oh! thus should our spirits, which bear many a token,
They are not of earth, but are exiles while here,
Preserve in their banishment, pure and unbroken,
Some sweet treasur'd notes of their own native sphere.
They are not of earth, but are exiles while here,
Preserve in their banishment, pure and unbroken,
Some sweet treasur'd notes of their own native sphere.
Though the dark clouds of sin may at times hover o'er us,
And the discords of earth may their melody mar,
Yet to spirits redeem'd some faint notes of that chorus,
Which is borne by the bless'd, will be brought from afar!
And the discords of earth may their melody mar,
Yet to spirits redeem'd some faint notes of that chorus,
Which is borne by the bless'd, will be brought from afar!
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