The Sea
There's more under the sea than mermaids and crabs that can sing. In "maggie and milly and molly and may," the sea represents life and the world we live in where anything is possible and there are...
Seashell
Even though the speaker only refers to the seashell once, it still strikes us as super-pretty and powerful in the way it can soothe maggie's troubles away. In that small shell we can hear the music...
Stranded Star
We can imagine milly's "stranded star" to represent any number of things, like a cosmic star, an actual starfish, or even a person's fingers. The personification of "five languid fingers" helps to...
Horrible Thing
The "horrible thing" that chases molly isn't given a name, but we can figure out that, since it runs sideways blowing bubbles, it's most definitely a crab. But why doesn't the speaker just call it...
The Stone
Stones are like the ultimate go-to symbol for virtually every poet, artist, philosopher—you name it. The speaker uses it in "maggie and milly and molly and may" to symbolize the lonely world we l...