Silence is louder than any noise is, When you sit in an empty house, For shut within it you can hear voices Of yourself; they gnaw like a mouse. They try to get out, into something, But don't know what. They nose and push At each wainscot of you, then -- a rum thing! -- Suddenly they hush. You don't know what they want to get out to, If indeed they are yourself; But each time they seem about to, Something creaks, a chair, or a shelf; Or a log burns through, or snow on the roof Slips -- and the chance they had is gone, And @3your@1 chance, too, to put to a proof Things you have never dared venture on. |