ABSTRACT
We know now a new origin of the faint hissing of the sea in the conch shell held to the ear. It is in part the tremor and throb of the hand, resonating in the shell’s chambers. Yet, inescapably, it is the distant sea. For Yeats, it would have been a reaffirmation of his proper query:
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?
