Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | VII. The Sea | | The Shell | | Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
| | From “Gebir,” Book I.
I AM not daunted, no; I will engage. | |
| But first, said she, what wager will you lay? | |
| A sheep, I answered, add whate’er you will. | |
| I cannot, she replied, make that return: | |
| Our hided vessels in their pitchy round | 5 |
| Seldom, unless from rapine, hold a sheep. | |
| But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue | |
| Within, and they that lustre have imbibed | |
| In the Sun’s palace-porch, where when unyoked | |
| His chariot-wheel stands midway in the wave: | 10 |
| Shake one and it awakens, then apply | |
| Its polisht lips to your attentive ear | |
| And it remembers its august abodes, | |
| And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there. | | | | |
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