What, though the sea-shell cheats the ear...

By Theodore Harding Rand

What, though the sea-shell cheats the ear,

And from my blood, free-coursing near,

Unspheres the far and murmurous phantom

Of breaking seas that I faintly hear?

Of life beyond there come to me

Hints truer than shell's phantom sea,—

I brood all space, the past, the present,

And timeless realms of eternity!

The rose-lipt thing has lost its pearl,—

Death's chamber is its polished whorl;

I am a life, and feel of Being

No phantom touch, but the vital swirl.