POEMS FROM THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE. 1857-1858. THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main, The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings, And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, As the frail tenant shaped his growing Build thee more stately mansions, O my Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, He left the past year's dwelling for the Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's new, unresting sea! While Valor's haughty champions wait Till all their scars are shown, No wailing bulbul's throat, No melting dulcimer's melodious note Love walks unchallenged through the When o'er the midnight wave its mur Hot from the heart of youth plunged in And coral pendants shorn from Autumn's his icy streams? berried stems. Leave me not fading in these weeds of Sit by me drifting on the sleepy waves, care, Or stretched by grass-grown graves, Whose gray, high-shouldered stones, Carved with old names Life's time-worn roll disowns, Lean, lichen-spotted, o'er the crumbled bones Still slumbering where they lay While the sad Pilgrim watched to scare the wolf away, |