The Egg-shell
The Egg-shell - meaning Summary
Survival Versus Indifference
A short, allegorical narrative about a Witch of the North who casts a fragile Egg-shell carrying a defiant little Blue Devil into changing weather and tides. She taunts it with orders to "sink" or "swim" and repeatedly abandons it to peril. Each time the Blue Devil survives and grows indifferent or detached, claiming self-preservation while noting others may be failing. The poem sketches survival, testing, and a cold moral distance from communal responsibility.
Read Complete AnalysesThe wind took off with the sunset-- The fog came up with the tide, When the Witch of the North took an Egg-shell With a little Blue Devil inside. "Sink," she said, "or swim," she said, "It's all you will bet from me. And that is the finish of him!" she said And the Egg-shell went to sea. The wind fell dead with the midnight-- The fog shut down like a sheet, When the Witch of the North heard the Egg-shell Feeling by hand for a fleet. "Get!" she said, "or you're gone," she said., But the little Blue Devil said "No! "The sights are just coming on," he said, And he let the Whitehead go. The wind got up with the morning-- The fog blew off with the rain, When the Witch of the North saw the Egg-shell And the little Blue Devil again. "Did you swim?" she said. "Did you sink:" she said, And the little Blue Devil replied: "For myself I swam, but I think," he said, "There's somebody sinking outside."
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