Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SILENCE, by MARY SINTON LEITCH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SILENCE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What do I love the dearest in my wood?
Last Line: Yet bears within its bosom all eternity.
Subject(s): Silence


What do I love the dearest in my wood?
The violets as white as virgin's snood,
The gauzy humming-bird?
The scurrying insect-life when moss is stirred
By an inquiring hand?
The odors that the balmy south wind brings?
The brown pine-needles carpeting the land
Richer than any rug from Samarcand?
Oh dearly, dearly do I love these things!
And yet, of all, I love the silence best --
The silence of the wood --
That gently seems to nest
And nestle in the over-burdened heart;
Soft as the feathered breast
Of yonder thrush that hovers near her brood;
Silence that soothes the ache and pain and smart
Of Life's swift lash laid on the quivering soul.
It is a chalice full of sanctities,
It is a benediction breathing peace.
It is as calm, as deep,
As cool green wells of sleep
In which the spirit sinks and is made whole.
And if from some bird-throat a sudden rill
Of sound may flow,
It is but etched against the stillness so
That all the wood seems even more deeply still.
Yet most for this I love the silence best
That it is big with longings unexpressed
And lyric with unutterable song; --
Astir with winds and wings
That ever with their soundless whisperings
Up-lift my heart and make my spirit strong.
For silence is as wide
And boundless as the wide and boundless sea:
It flows around me in a mighty tide
Of vast beatitude.
Oh may I ever live upon the shore
Of its beneficent immensity
That, when life's clamor grows too harsh and rude,
I may steal forth to the great quietude;
That I may feel its healing waters pour
Over my tired soul and wash it clean
Of trivial things and mean!
And thus it is the silence of the wood,
The silence of renewal and of rest,
That I love best --
The silence that today envelops me,
Yet bears within its bosom all eternity.





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