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Shawords

Quote#Nature

Gather a shell from the strewn beach

Quote byDante Gabriel Rossetti · 1828–1882

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Sea-Limits, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "I send thee a shell from the ocean-beach; But listen thou well, for my shell hath speech. Hold to thine ear / And plain thou'lt hear / Tales of ships", Charles Henry Webb, With a Nantucket Shell; The hollow sea-sh.

English (original)

Gather a shell from the strewn beach And listen at its lips: they sigh The same desire and mystery, The echo of the whole sea's speech.

— Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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