On Some Shells Found Inland

Trumbull Stickney 1874 (Geneva) – 1904



These are my murmur-laden shells that keep
A fresh voice tho' the years be very gray.
The wave that washed their lips and tuned their lay
Is gone, gone with the faded ocean sweep,
The royal tide, gray ebb and sunken neap
And purple midday,--gone! To this hot clay
Must sing my shells, where yet the primal day,
Its roar and rhythm and splendour will not sleep.
What hand shall join them to their proper sea
If all be gone? Shall they forever feel
Glories undone and world that cannot be?--
'Twere mercy to stamp out this aged wrong,
Dash them to earth and crunch them with the heel
And make a dust of their seraphic song.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
100

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDCEDE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 629
Words 121
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Trumbull Stickney

Joseph Trumbull Stickney was an American classical scholar and poet. more…

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