|
maggie and milly and molly and mae
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and
mae came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea.
-- from COMPLETE POEMS: 1940-1962 by E.E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Copyright (c) 1950, 1978, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. Copyright (c) 1979 by George James Firmage. With permission of the publisher, Liveright Publishing Corporation.
______________________________
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"
"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
--Lewis Carroll, from "The Walrus and the Carpenter"
______________________________ |
