Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WITH A SEASHELL, by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Shell, whose lips, than mine more cold Last Line: "tell you what you guessed before!" Subject(s): Shells; Conchology | ||||||||
SHELL, whose lips, than mine more cold, Might with Dian's ear make bold, Seek my Lady's; if thou win To that portal, shut from sin, Where commissioned angels' swords Startle back unholy words, Thou a miracle shalt see Wrought by it and wrought in thee; Thou, the dumb one, shalt recover Speech of poet, speech of lover. If she deign to lift you there, Murmur what I may not dare; In that archway, pearly-pink As the Dawn's untrodden brink, Murmur, "Excellent and good, Beauty's best in every mood, Never common, never tame, Changeful fair as windwaved flame" Nay, I maunder; this she hears Every day with mocking ears, With a brow not sudden-stained With the flush of bliss restrained, With no tremor of the pulse More than feels the dreaming dulse In the midmost ocean's caves, When a tempest heaps the waves. Thou must woo her in a phrase Mystic as the opal's blaze, Which pure maids alone can see When their lovers constant be. I with thee a secret share, Half a hope, and half a prayer, Though no reach of mortal skill Ever told it all, or will; Say, "He bids me nothing more Tell you what you guessed before!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TANKA DIARY (2) by HARRYETTE MULLEN APPRECIATION by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO SOME LADIES [ON RECEIVING A CURIOUS SHELL] by JOHN KEATS ON SOME SHELLS FOUND INLAND by TRUMBULL STICKNEY WITH A NANTUCKET SHELL by CHARLES HENRY WEBB AN ENGLISH SHELL by ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON SEA LAVENDER by LOUISE MOREY BOWMAN AFTER THE BURIAL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL |
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