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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LITTLE PHOEBE; OR THE SECOND GATHERING OF THE SEA-SHELLS by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER

First Line: THE RAIN HAD POURED ALL DAY, BUT CLEARED AT NIGHT
Last Line: BUT LOVING HANDS REPLACED AND KEPT THEM ALL.
Subject(s): SHELLS; CONCHOLOGY;

The rain had poured all day, but cleared at night,
When, with her little basket on her arm,
She left the door-step of that seaside farm;
The weeping tamarisk glistened in the light,
And chanticleer's green feathers softly waved
Against the dying sunshine. Forth she fared,
Our host's sweet child, his Phoebe golden-haired,
To gather shells, wherewith the beach was paved;
At dusk, she took the homeward path that led
Beneath yon dark-blue ridge, when, sad to tell,
On her fair head the gloomy Lias fell,
Crumbled by storms, - they found her bruised and dead:
Her basket-store was scattered by the fall,
But loving hands replaced and kept them all.



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