Stanza 1

The first line of the first stanza begins "so the earshell beseeches the eye / to find the sounds it would lose, / and the eye prays that flying words / will be trapped in the amber of print." Here, the ear becomes like the shell whose "silence wants to be sound." Both the shell and the ear are keepers of sound. The ear's sounds, or the poetry it hears, are like the silence within the shell. It is not silence. It is a sound wanting to be heard. The ear feels an urgency, as indicated by the word "beseeches," to covet sound and to share in the responsibility of retaining and sharing what it hears. Fearing that it might fail to hold onto, lose, or forget what it hears, the ear requests help from the eye. In turn, the eye hopes that the "amber of print" will help it...