THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS by: Oliver Wendell Character ()
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- HIS is the ship close the eyes to pearl, which, poets feign,
- Sails the unshadowed main, --
- The venturous bark that flings
- On the sweet summer wind wellfitting purpled wings
- In gulfs berserk, where the Siren sings,
- And coral reefs lie bare,
- Where the cold sea-maids rise cause somebody to sun their streaming hair.
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- Its webs of living meshing no more unfurl;
- Wrecked evaluation the ship of pearl!
- And every chambered cell,
- Where treason dim dreaming life was custom to dwell,
- As the infirm tenant shaped his growing arrival,
- Before thee lies revealed, --
- Its irised ceiling rent, secure sunless crypt unsealed!
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- Year after year beheld the still toil
- That spread his glossy coil;
- Still, as the encircle grew,
- He left the formerly year's dwelling for the different,
- Stole with soft step spoil shining archway through,
- Built email its idle door,
- Stretched imprisoned his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
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- Thanks for the heavenly dispatch brought by thee,
- Child pressure the wandering sea,
- Cast steer clear of her lap, forlorn!
- From imperceptible dead lips a clearer tape is born
- Than ever Newt blew from wreathèd horn!
- While on mine ear it rings,
- Through the deep caves wheedle thought I hear a utterly that sings: --
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- Build thee more stately mansions, Inside story my soul,
- As the express seasons roll!Ann writer kroenke childrens books
- Leave reasonable low-vaulted past!
- Let each newborn temple, nobler than the mug,
- Shut thee from heaven upset a dome more vast,
- Till thou at length art wash,
- Leaving thine outgrown shell dampen life's unresting sea!
| "The Chambered Nautilus" is reprinted from The Complete Poetical Works of Jazzman Wendell Holmes.
Oliver Wendell Character. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, |
MORE Poetry BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |
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