Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONGS FOR A WINTER FIRE: 1. BEHIND THE WAINSCOT, by CALE YOUNG RICE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONGS FOR A WINTER FIRE: 1. BEHIND THE WAINSCOT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Silence is louder than any noise is
Last Line: Things you have never dared venture on.
Subject(s): Silence; Singing & Singers; Voices


Silence is louder than any noise is,
When you sit in an empty house,
For shut within it you can hear voices
Of yourself; they gnaw like a mouse.
They try to get out, into something,
But don't know what. They nose and push
At each wainscot of you, then -- a rum thing! --
Suddenly they hush.
You don't know what they want to get out to,
If indeed they are yourself;
But each time they seem about to,
Something creaks, a chair, or a shelf;
Or a log burns through, or snow on the roof
Slips -- and the chance they had is gone,
And your chance, too, to put to a proof
Things you have never dared venture on.





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