" The title entity is alternately called a "Child of the wandering sea," and a wrecked "Ship of pearl."  
A line from this poem provides the title of a play that Martha Gilman Bower claims is substantially incomplete; that play was planned as one of nine plays in the A Tale of Possessors Self-Possessed cycle and is a follow-up to A Touch of the Poet by Eugene O'Neill.  This poem notes that "Year after year beheld the silent toil" that created the title entity, while that entity's current state causes the speaker to note that its "webs of living gauze no more unfurl." The title entity is alternately called a "Child of the wandering sea," and a wrecked "Ship of pearl."  FTP, name this poem that lauds the "purpled wings" of the title creature before exclaiming "Build me more stately mansions, Oh my soul," a work about a cephalopod by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
A line from this poem provides the title of a play that Martha Gilman Bower claims is substantially incomplete; that play was planned as one of nine plays in the A Tale of Possessors Self-Possessed cycle and is a follow-up to A Touch of the Poet by Eugene O'Neill.  
“The {Chambered Nautilus}” (2) [AH]