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| THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, | |
| Sails the unshadowed main,— | |
| The venturous bark that flings | |
| On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings | |
| In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings, | 5 |
| And coral reefs lie bare, | |
| Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. | |
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| Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; | |
| Wrecked is the ship of pearl! | |
| And every chambered cell, | 10 |
| Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, | |
| As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, | |
| Before thee lies revealed,— | |
| Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! | |
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| Year after year beheld the silent toil | 15 |
| That spread his lustrous coil; | |
| Still, as the spiral grew, | |
| He left the past year’s dwelling for the new, | |
| Stole with soft step its shining archway through, | |
| Built up its idle door, | 20 |
| Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. | |
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| Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, | |
| Child of the wandering sea, | |
| Cast from her lap, forlorn! | |
| From thy dead lips a clearer note is born | 25 |
| Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn! | |
| While on mine ear it rings, | |
| Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:— | |
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| Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, | |
| As the swift seasons roll! | 30 |
| Leave thy low-vaulted past! | |
| Let each new temple, nobler than the last, | |
| Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, | |
| Till thou at length art free, | |
| Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea! | 35 |
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