Introductory Verses

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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 it's 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 beneath the surface of the waves,
Where lie our shipwrecks, and our coral caves.