Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN SILENCE, by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD Poet's Biography First Line: She sees our faces bright and gay Last Line: "the virtue that hath made thee whole." Subject(s): Peace; Silence; Sin; Smiles; Soul | ||||||||
She sees our faces bright and gay, Our moving lips, our laughing eyes, But scarce a word of what we say Can pass the zone that round her lies; -- A zone of stillness, -- strange, profound, Invisible to mortal eye, Upon whose verge the waves of sound In muffled murmurs break and die. Across that silent void she strains To catch at least some winged word, And, though she fails, still smiles and feigns The poor pretence of having heard. That smile! Its pathos wrings the heart Of many a friend, who yet conceals The tears that from his eyelids start, The grief and pity that he feels. And she, aware of our distress, And sadly conscious of her own, Still bravely speaks, nor dares confess That our real meaning is unknown. What rapture, when the closing door Shuts out the world and gives release, And on her quivering nerves once more Descends the benison of peace! No longer forced to dimly read Men's meanings from their lips and looks, Her greatest joy, her only need The sweet companionship of books! Do we thus ever fully know The boon of leaving far behind The world's dull tales of crime and woe, The gossip of its vacant mind? What if her loss be really gain, That zone of silence a defence, A compensation for her pain, A quickening of her psychic sense? Perhaps when fall at last away The chains which bind her spirit here, A voice divine will gently say In tones which reach alone her ear, -- "While others in that world of sin Heard evil things, to thee unknown, Apart from that defiling din Thy spirit grew, in strength, alone. "They must through other lives return To slowly earn thy strength of soul; Through suffering only couldst thou learn The virtue that hath made thee whole." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CRUEL FALCON by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE WHOLE SOUL by PHILIP LEVINE I KNOW MY SOUL by CLAUDE MCKAY HONORING THE SAND; IN MEMORY OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL by ROBERT BLY THE CHINESE PEAKS; FOR DONALD HALL by ROBERT BLY THE LIFE OF TOWNS: TOWN OF THE EXHUMATION by ANNE CARSON A MAY MONODY by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD |
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