{
 "id": "george-macdonald/the-sea-shell",
 "title": "The Sea-Shell",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Disciple and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "the-disciple-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1867,
  "venue": "The Disciple and Other Poems (1867)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/discipleandothe02macdgoog"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/george-macdonald_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8949",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10578",
   "https://archive.org/details/bookofstrifeinfo00macd",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/rampolli00macd",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102955776",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011821572"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Listen, darling, and tell to me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What the murmurer says to thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Murmuring ’twixt a song and a moan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Changing neither tune nor tone.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Yes, I hear it⁠—far and faint,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like thin-drawn prayer of drowsy saint;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "like the falling of sleep on a weary brain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the fevered heart is quiet again.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“By smiling lip and fixed eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You are hearing more than song or sigh:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wrinkled thing has curious ways⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I want to know what words it says.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I hear a wind on a boatless main",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sigh like the last of a vanishing pain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the dreaming waters dreams the moon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I hear no words in their murmured tune.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“If it does not say that I love thee well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis a senseless, ill-curved, worn-out shell.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If it is not of love, why sigh or sing?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis a common, mechanical, useless thing.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“It whispers of love⁠—’tis a prophet-shell⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a peace that comes and all shall be well;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It speaks not a word of your love to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But it tells me to love you eternally.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}