Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Introductory Verses

Oh, you who read some song that I have sung –
What know you of the soul from whence it sprung? 

Dost dream the poet ever speaks aloud
His secret thought unto the listening crowd? 

Go take the murmuring sea-shell from the shore-
You have its shape, its colour – and no more.

It tells not one of those vast mysteries
That lie beneath the surface of the seas.

Our songs are shells, cast out by waves of thought; 
Here, take them at your pleasure; but think not

You’ve seen the beneath the surface of the waves, 
Where lie our shipwrecks, and our coral caves.