Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/114

54 And one, the rarest, was a Shell

Which he, poor Child, had studied well;

The Shell of a green Turtle, thin

And hollow;—you might sit therein,

It was so wide and deep.

'Twas even the largest of its kind,

Large, thin, and light as birch-tree rind;

So light a Shell that it would swim,

And gaily lift its fearless brim

Above the tossing waves.

And this the little blind Boy knew:

And he a story strange, yet true,

Had heard, how in a Shell like this

An English Boy, O thought of bliss!

Had stoutly launched from shore;

Launched from the margin of a bay

Among the Indian Isles, where lay

His Father's ship, and had sailed far,

To join that gallant Ship of war,

In his delightful Shell.