( WITH A MORAL )
Ablythe little mollusk sat out on the sands
Watching the glow of the warm, sunlit lands;
She was young, she was foolish, perhaps it is true,
But all life was fair from her maritime view.
She looked on the shore with its blossoming bays, —
She looked on the sea with its devious ways;
While the starfishes danced in the fast ebbing tide,
And the pecten waltzed solo, in safety, inside.
The channel and stone crabs filed by two by two,
In armor of brown and of purple and blue.
By a rampart of seaweed, in battle array,
A horde of sand fiddlers had carried the day.
All nature sought comrades, the earth and the sea, —
The mollusk, the vertebrate, — then why not she? —
She was young, she was foolish, but still life was fair
To the Fasciolaria Tulipa there.
She dreamed with the longing of innocent youth, —
And she was alone with her dreaming, in truth, —
For Madame Tulipa had gone out to tea
With the Fulgur Perversums just out by the Key.
Full many a counsel of motherly kind
She gave to the daughter she must leave behind;
" Judge not the veiled heart by the fair seeming head,
And swallow with salt but the half that is said. "
" Beware of the stranger who hideth his feet,
Who pleadeth his kinship with flattery sweet;
Though wearing our colors, though flaunting our cause, —
'Tis the brown hermit-crab, — ah! beware of his claws! " —
But twilight will cloy upon youth when alone,
With the sea for a comrade, whose voice is a moan.
And wisdom, experience, such fables will bring, —
Ah! the sageness of age is a wearisome thing! —
So dreamed Miss Tulipa alone in her bower,
In the freshness of youth and the pride of her dower,
Till she longed for a gay coated stranger to pass, —
To test her own beauty, — his valor, — alas! —
As there's always a way to let misery in, —
As there's always a loophole in forethought of sin, —
Soon a debonair stranger passed by and made pause, —
And a Tulipa shell held his sharp, cruel claws.
He had paused on a mission both novel and gay,
To wish Miss Tulipa a merry " Good Day! " —
His knighthood was brave and his armor was fair,
And he clamored of kinship with cousinly air.
He sung of her grace in the tenderest tone,
He praised her bright mantle, so like to his own! —
And she bridled with pride, as she listened at last,
With her dainty operculum cautiously fast.
So wily the tempter, so guileless the host, —
Suspicion had vanished and left not a ghost.
Then he swore by her beauty and prayed her to trust, —
To the edge of her mantle her soft foot to thrust;
He vowed he would carry the word o'er the sea,
That none had so small and so dainty as she! —
He pledged by the stars and he vowed by yet more, —
And the foolish Tulipa had opened her door! —
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The sunlight had faded, the afterglow burned,
Till its crimson and gold to the gray twilight turned;
The bars felt the tides and the earth felt the dews,
Ere Madame Tulipa had made her adieux.
And home from the bars she came, all in the dark,
By the light of a star and a will o'wisp spark,
To find by the shore, where her daughter should dwell,
But a Fasciolaria Tulipa shell!
Ablythe little mollusk sat out on the sands
Watching the glow of the warm, sunlit lands;
She was young, she was foolish, perhaps it is true,
But all life was fair from her maritime view.
She looked on the shore with its blossoming bays, —
She looked on the sea with its devious ways;
While the starfishes danced in the fast ebbing tide,
And the pecten waltzed solo, in safety, inside.
The channel and stone crabs filed by two by two,
In armor of brown and of purple and blue.
By a rampart of seaweed, in battle array,
A horde of sand fiddlers had carried the day.
All nature sought comrades, the earth and the sea, —
The mollusk, the vertebrate, — then why not she? —
She was young, she was foolish, but still life was fair
To the Fasciolaria Tulipa there.
She dreamed with the longing of innocent youth, —
And she was alone with her dreaming, in truth, —
For Madame Tulipa had gone out to tea
With the Fulgur Perversums just out by the Key.
Full many a counsel of motherly kind
She gave to the daughter she must leave behind;
" Judge not the veiled heart by the fair seeming head,
And swallow with salt but the half that is said. "
" Beware of the stranger who hideth his feet,
Who pleadeth his kinship with flattery sweet;
Though wearing our colors, though flaunting our cause, —
'Tis the brown hermit-crab, — ah! beware of his claws! " —
But twilight will cloy upon youth when alone,
With the sea for a comrade, whose voice is a moan.
And wisdom, experience, such fables will bring, —
Ah! the sageness of age is a wearisome thing! —
So dreamed Miss Tulipa alone in her bower,
In the freshness of youth and the pride of her dower,
Till she longed for a gay coated stranger to pass, —
To test her own beauty, — his valor, — alas! —
As there's always a way to let misery in, —
As there's always a loophole in forethought of sin, —
Soon a debonair stranger passed by and made pause, —
And a Tulipa shell held his sharp, cruel claws.
He had paused on a mission both novel and gay,
To wish Miss Tulipa a merry " Good Day! " —
His knighthood was brave and his armor was fair,
And he clamored of kinship with cousinly air.
He sung of her grace in the tenderest tone,
He praised her bright mantle, so like to his own! —
And she bridled with pride, as she listened at last,
With her dainty operculum cautiously fast.
So wily the tempter, so guileless the host, —
Suspicion had vanished and left not a ghost.
Then he swore by her beauty and prayed her to trust, —
To the edge of her mantle her soft foot to thrust;
He vowed he would carry the word o'er the sea,
That none had so small and so dainty as she! —
He pledged by the stars and he vowed by yet more, —
And the foolish Tulipa had opened her door! —
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The sunlight had faded, the afterglow burned,
Till its crimson and gold to the gray twilight turned;
The bars felt the tides and the earth felt the dews,
Ere Madame Tulipa had made her adieux.
And home from the bars she came, all in the dark,
By the light of a star and a will o'wisp spark,
To find by the shore, where her daughter should dwell,
But a Fasciolaria Tulipa shell!