Classic and Contemporary Poetry
UNSPOKEN, by FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS Poet's Biography First Line: There's a straight-laid, bordered path Last Line: Thus the silence tells the agony and pain. Subject(s): Home; Man-woman Relationships; Peace; Silence; Sleep; Male-female Relations | ||||||||
There's a straight-laid, bordered path, With white pillars standing guard to porch and vine. Smile and welcome you will meet, Sir and Lady there will greet; But there's silence strange and numbing in that home. There's a wide and spacious hall Where rare beauty beckons you to stay and rest. You may stand, or lounge, or walk; Yet with all your merry talk There is silence throbbing like an undertone. There are viands on the board, Served in plenty, heaped on glass and porcelain. You are welcome to it all; Yet there hangs there like a pall Gnawing silence that persists above your glee. There are chambers broad and high, Whose gay ceilings make you think of Paradise. Soft air creeps along the halls; Gaslight glitters on the walls; But that silence throttles all the peace of sleep. Never is there heard a note That will strike the sense discordantly; For the rift within the lute Has made all the life-tones mute; Thus the silence tells the agony and pain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MISERY AND SPLENDOR by ROBERT HASS THE APPLE TREES AT OLEMA by ROBERT HASS DOUBLE SONNET by ANTHONY HECHT CONDITIONS XXI by ESSEX HEMPHILL CALIFORNIA SORROW: MOUNTAIN VIEW by MARY KINZIE SUPERBIA: A TRIUMPH WITH NO TRAIN by MARY KINZIE COUNSEL TO UNREASON by LEONIE ADAMS TWENTY QUESTIONS by DAVID LEHMAN A DAKOTA IDYL by FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS |
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