Harriet Monroe, ed. (18601936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 191222. | | The Inner Silence | By Harriet Monroe |
| NOISES that strive to tear | |
Earths mantle soft of air | |
And break upon the stillness where it dwells: | |
The noise of battle and the noise of prayer, | |
The cooing noise of love that softly tells | 5 |
Joys brevity, the brazen noise of laughter | |
All these affront me not, nor echo after | |
Through the long memories. | |
They may not enter the deep chamber where | |
Forever silence is. | 10 |
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Silence more soft than spring hides in the ground | |
Beneath her budding flowers; | |
Silence more rich than ever was the sound | |
Of harps through long warm hours. | |
Its like a hidden vastness, even as though | 15 |
Great suns might there beat out their measures slow, | |
Nor break the hush mightier than they. | |
There do I dwell eternally, | |
There where no thought may follow me, | |
Nor stillest dreams whose pinions plume the way. | 20 | | |
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