Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.

A Book of Sonnets

The Three Silences of Molinos

To John Greenleaf Whittier

Written to be read at the dinner given by the publishers of The Atlantic Monthly to Mr. Whittier in honor of his seventieth birthday, December 18, 1877.

THREE Silences there are: the first of speech,

The second of desire, the third of thought;

This is the lore a Spanish monk, distraught

With dreams and visions, was the first to teach.

These Silences, commingling each with each,

Made up the perfect Silence that he sought

And prayed for, and wherein at times he caught

Mysterious sounds from realms beyond our reach.

O thou, whose daily life anticipates

The life to come, and in whose thought and word

The spiritual world preponderates,

Hermit of Amesbury! thou too hast heard

Voices and melodies from beyond the gates,

And speakest only when thy soul is stirred!