To a Sea Shell

Friend of my chamber--O thou spiral shell That murmurest of the ever-murmuring sea! Repeating with eternal constancy Whatever memories the wave can tell; Whatever harmonies may rise and swell, Whatever sadness in the deep may be-- They are the ocean's, and desired of thee; Thou treasurest what thou dost love so well. So all my heart is one voluted fold, Shielding one face, and evermore it seems Upon the threshold of the prying day, Hid in the tangle of reluctant dreams; And in the noontide, and the evening grey, Its light illumines secrecies untold