Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UNSPOKEN by FANNIE BARRIER WILLIAMS

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.


Home: PoetryExplorer.net