I.

Upon a broad and placid beach,
Beside the billows' swell,
I mused upon the human race
Which doeth all things well;
When I heard a chambered nautilus
A-weeping in his shell.

II.

In fair boat of radiant pearl,
With silver sail and oar,
On sunlit waves we floated there,
A little way from shore;
And yet that chambered nautilus
Did sob and sorrow sore.

III.

My heart went out in sympathy
Across the shallow sea;
Thought I, " with form so beautiful
And life so fair and free,
A thing to make this creature weep
An awful thing must be! "

IV.

So I asked him most respectfully,
With interest sincere
If he would tell me why he wept,
When all things did appear
So perfectly harmonious,
So bright and calm and clear.

V.

Then he spoke in woeful accents,
As did such grief behoove,
Waving his lovely tentacles
From softly silvered groove —
" I am the saddest thing alive
Because I have to move ! "

VI.

" To move! " said I; " to grow, you mean —
The lot of living things!
But you grow in a pearly shell
While others grow in wings,
In legs, fins, tails, beaks, horns, and scales,
Proboscises, and stings! "

VII.

" No, no! " he cried, " it isn't that
Which makes my grief and gloom,
In spite of summer sea and sky
And irridescent bloom —
But when I grow I have to move ,
And build another room!

VIII.

" My little rooms! my little rooms!
Each dear deserted shell!
So sweetly smooth, so softly bright,
And fitting me so well!
I sob and grieve for each I leave
But still I grow and swell!

IX.

I never can revisit them!
Each step has made a wall!
I never can grow backward,
And be young again and small!
I have to rise — to grow — to move!
And I don't like it all! "

X.

I rose and wandered on a space,
With thoughts too deep to tell;
And still, through all my pride of race,
Above the billowy swell,
I heard the chambered nautilus
A-weeping in his shell!