Minnie and Winnie

The Calmady Children. Sir Thomas Lawrence. 1823.

 

Minnie and Winnie

Alfred Lord Tennyson

 

Minnie and Winnie

Slept in a shell.

Sleep, little ladies!

And they slept well.

 

Pink was the shell within,

Silver without;

Sounds of the great sea

Wander’d about.

 

Sleep, little ladies!

Wake not soon!

Echo on echo

Dies to the moon.

 

Two bright stars

Peep’d into the shell.

“What are you dreaming of?

Who can tell?”

 

Started a green linnet

Out of the croft;

Wake, little ladies,

The sun is aloft!