Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE ENCHANTED SHELL, by HENRIETTA CORDELIA RAY Poet's Biography First Line: Fair, fragile una, golden-haired Last Line: Is it a vision? Who can tell? Alternate Author Name(s): Ray, Cordelia Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Shells; Conchology | ||||||||
Fair, fragile Una, golden-haired, With melancholy, dark gray eyes, Sits on a rock by laughing waves, Gazing into the radiant skies; And holding to her ear a shell, A rosy shell of wondrous form; Quite plaintively to her it coos Marvelous lays of sea and storm. It whispers of a fairy home With coral halls and pearly floors, Where mermaids clad in glist'ning gold Guard smilingly the jeweled doors. She listens and her weird gray eyes Grow weirder in their pensive gaze. The sea birds toss her tangled curls, The skiff lights glimmer through the haze. O strange sea-singer! what has lent Such fascination to thy spell? Is some celestial guardian Prisoned within thee, tiny shell? The maid sits rapt until the stars In myriad shining clusters gleam; "Enchanted Una," she is called By boatmen gliding down the stream. The tempest beats the restless seas, The wind blows loud, fierce frown the skies; Sweet, sylph-like Una clasps the shell, Peace brooding in her quiet eyes. The wind blows wilder, darkness comes, The rock is bare, night birds soar far; Thick clouds scud o'er the gloomy heav'ns Unvisited by any star. Where is quaint Una? On some isle, Dreaming 'mid music, may she be? Or does she listen to the shell In coral halls within the sea? The boatmen say, on stormy nights They see rare Una with the shell, Sitting in pensive attitude. Is it a vision? Who can tell? | 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 STORM by HENRIETTA CORDELIA RAY |
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