Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO SILENCE, by THOMAS STURGE MOORE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO SILENCE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O deep and clear as is the sky
Last Line: Still be to my fond hope a friend.
Alternate Author Name(s): Moore, T. Sturge
Subject(s): Silence


O DEEP and clear as is the sky,
A soul is as a bird in thee
That travels on and on; so I,
Like a snared linnet, now break free,
Who in thee have but played before
As youth bathes near a sultry shore.

Then (as a floating nereid sleeps
In the deep-billowed ocean-stream;
And by some goatherd on lone rock
Is thought a corpse, though she may dream
And profit by both health and ease
Nursed on those high green rolling seas)

Languidly drifted with thy tide,
Appearing dead to those I passed,
I lived in thee, and dreamed, and waked
Twice what I had been. Now, I cast
Me broken on thy buoyant deep
And dreamless in thy calm would sleep.

Silence, almost I now believe
Thou art the speech on lips divine,
Their greatest kindness to their child.
Yet I, who for all wisdom pine,
Seek thee but as a bather swims
To refresh and not dissolve his limbs.

Though those be thine, who asked and had,
And asked and had again, again,
Yet always found they wanted more,
Till craving grew to be a pain!
And they at last to Silence fled,
Glad to lose all for which they pled,

O pure and wide as is the sky,
Heal me, yet give me back to life!
Though thou foresee the day when I,
Sated with failure, dead to strife,
Shall seek in thee my being's end,
Still be to my fond hope a friend.





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