Ever a song of ocean seem'd to sing—
Ever a tale of ocean seem'd to tell.
How came the shell upon the mountain height?
Ah, who can say
Whether there dropped by some too careless hand—
Whether there cast when oceans swept the land,
Ere the Eternal had ordained the day?
Strange, was it not? Far from its native deep,
One song it sang;
Sang of the awful mysteries of the tide,