Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UNUTTERED by JOHN BANISTER TABB

First Line: WAITING FOR WORDS - AS ON THE BROAD EXPANSE
Last Line: IN SMILES, THAT ON THE LIP OF SILENCE FADE.
Subject(s): SILENCE;
WAITING for words -- as on the broad expanse
Of heaven the formless vapors of the night,
Expectant, wait the oracle of light
Interpreting their dumb significance;
Or like a star that in the morning glance
Shrinks, as a folding blossom, from the sight,
Nor wakens till upon the western height
The shadows to their evening towers advance --

So, in my soul, a dream ineffable,
Expectant of the sunshine or the shade,
Hath oft, upon the brink of twilight chill,
Or at the dawn's pale glimmering portal stayed
In tears, that all the quivering eyelids fill,
In smiles, that on the lip of silence fade.



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