Consider Ye the Upthrust Pearl

Now pause in passing, stop to dwell
Upon the homes and places here;
And listen, close, to what they tell
Of dreams the hearts of others cheer
That form the stars above the well
Of inky blackness mortals steer.

In what they have and what they build,
Behold what they aspire to;
The rough-edged lives they seek to gild
Are thought too plain to be in view.
When time has all the embers chilled,
Small souls depart the shells they grew.

Consider ye the upthrust pearl:
How little it enriched the world.