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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SHADOW OF SILENCE, by HAROLD TROWBRIDGE PULSIFER Poet's Biography
First Line: The wind no longer sings to me
Last Line: Is the one grief I know.
Subject(s): Grief; Silence; Sorrow; Sadness
First Line: The wind no longer sings to me
Last Line: Is the one grief I know.
Subject(s): Grief; Silence; Sorrow; Sadness
The wind no longer sings to me,
Nor is there any sound
From the white fringes of the sea
Or spring rain on the ground.
I see the song-bird's swelling throat,
And lift my head to hear
A long-belated silver note
That never meets my ear.
The earth like velvet deeply drowns
All echoes of my tread.
My ghostly friends through ghostly towns
Drift like the formless dead.
Only the changeless pantomime
Of stars in still review
Keeps me in touch with space and time
And worlds that once I knew.
For all the chorus of the earth
Down the unending days
Will bring no tidings of clean mirth: --
I walk through soundless ways.
Wind, sea, birds, and living men:
If you are silent, -- be it so!
A voice I shall not hear again
Is the one grief I know.
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