I THOUGHT of life, the outer and the inner, As I was walking by the sea: How vague, unshapen this, and that, though thinner, Yet hard and clear in its rigidity. Then took I up the fragment of a shell, And saw its accurate loveliness, And searched its filmy lines, its pearly cell, And all that keen contention to express A finite thought. And then I recognised God's working in the shell from root to rim, And said: -- "He works till He has realised -- O Heaven! if I could only work like Him!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OCTAVES: 7 by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THE LOVER MOURNS FOR THE LOSS OF LOVE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS EASTER by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE AIM WAS SONG by ROBERT FROST THE FLYING DUTCHMAN by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON |