Silence

Thomas Hood

 
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;
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,
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.
 

Poems by This Author

No! by Thomas Hood
Song of the Shirt by Thomas Hood
With fingers weary and worn


Further Reading

Poems About Silence
A Silence
by Amy Clampitt
Bone & Silence
by Gerald Fleming
Ghazal: In Silence
by Mimi Khalvati
Silence
by Marianne Moore
Sonnet—Silence
by Edgar Allan Poe
The Silence
by Philip Schultz
What are the consequences of silence?
by Bhanu Kapil Rider