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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.

Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Book: Reflection on the Important Things