Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Thomas Hood. 17981845648. Silence
THERE is a silence where hath been no sound, | |
There is a silence where no sound may be, | |
In the cold grave—under the deep, deep sea, | |
Or in wide desert where no life is found, | |
Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound; | 5 |
No voice is hush’d—no life treads silently, | |
But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free, | |
That never spoke, over the idle ground: | |
But in green ruins, in the desolate walls | |
Of antique palaces, where Man hath been, | 10 |
Though the dun fox or wild hyæna calls, | |
And owls, that flit continually between, | |
Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan— | |
There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone. |