Stately Mansions

You know that Oliver Wendell Holmes line about “more stately mansions?” It goes: “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul; As the swift seasons roll!” If you remember this poem from about 11th grade, or so, this is not about putting up some big old house on the hill; it’s about a seashell--the chambered nautilus to be exact. It’s a really cool poem if taken as an example of what was going on at that time in the verse world; really rather rococo and silly from this distance…but you must remember Mr. Holmes was a poet of his time and fiddling around fancily was what one did with ink and quill in those days. Stuff had to rhyme too…something I myself rather fancy: There once was a man from Bellaire…

The nautilus is debatably the most beautiful seashell in the world although, in my view, they are all beautiful. From the nautilus down to those little cowries you see made into necklaces. My apartment testifies to my appreciation of this beauty and perfection. I have a large nautilus photograph in my bathroom and a nautilus-incorporated window panel in my bedroom; I have a large conch shell carved out of a piece of hardwood burl; I have three tall, slender glass containers filled with small shells I’ve collected over the decades. I have a glass moon snail shell from Stueben and an art-glass shell I purchased in a small out-of-the-way shop in Weaverville, Calif. I have a glass lamp base filled with shells.

Seashells are hard to resist and easily gathered and almost all of us have succumbed to their siren call. No child on the beach can resist them. Do you know Sanibel Island, off the Gulf coast of Florida? I have, many times, done the “Sanibel Slump” while combing that beach and have even, in the rain, hunkered down in the shallows looking for these natural jewels. I have shells from Tahiti; Morocco, The Philippines and the Caribbean. I have never taken any illegally and I have never paid for one (other than the “art” mentioned above). I have a box of large shells in the basement; some of which I occasionally integrate into my general tchotchke arrangements on my display shelves.

I admit to being a freak for this type of nature. A seashell is a perfect work of art, you know, and should be revered as such.