Lyric discussion by Tsuppi 

Cover art for Cannot Eat Better Not Sleep lyrics by Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers, The

This song is quite beautiful, and especially heart-wrenching with the lines '...for someone as cold as I am.'

I believe it concerns someone who doesn't think they deserve "the smoothest seashell" - that is, love. Unconditional love, perhaps. ("I only brought it because I thought you'd want it back.")

But with the second stanza it seems the one who gave the seashell ended up leaving the speaker for -their own- despair to be fixed. It hasn't yet, by the end of the song.

Once again, it's heart-wrenching when you dig and find that the speaker deeply cares for this loving person who is nevertheless suffering.