Sonnet—Silence

Edgar Allan Poe

 
There are some qualities—some incorporate things,
   That have a double life, which thus is made
A type of that twin entity which springs
   From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.
There is a two-fold Silence—sea and shore—
   Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places,
   Newly with grass o'ergrown; some solemn graces,
Some human memories and tearful lore,
Render him terrorless: his name's "No More."
He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!
   No power hath he of evil in himself;
But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!)
   Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf,
That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod
No foot of man,) commend thyself to God!
 

Poems by This Author

A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe
Take this kiss upon the brow!
Alone by Edgar Allan Poe
From childhood's hour I have not been
An Acrostic by Edgar Allan Poe
Elizabeth it is in vain you say
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
It was many and many a year ago,
Dream-Land by Edgar Allan Poe
By a route obscure and lonely
El Dorado by Edgar Allan Poe
Gaily bedight, / A gallant knight,
Lenore by Edgar Allan Poe
Ah broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
Spirits of the Dead by Edgar Allan Poe
Thy soul shall find itself alone
The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe
Hear the sledges with the bells--
The Haunted Palace by Edgar Allan Poe
In the greenest of our valleys
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
The Valley of Unrest by Edgar Allan Poe
Once it smiled a silent dell
To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe
Helen, thy beauty is to me
To My Mother by Edgar Allan Poe
Because I feel that, in the Heavens above
Ulalume by Edgar Allan Poe
The skies they were ashen and sober


Further Reading

Related Poems
Silence
by Marianne Moore
Poems About Silence
A Silence
by Amy Clampitt
Bone & Silence
by Gerald Fleming
Ghazal: In Silence
by Mimi Khalvati
Silence
by Marianne Moore
Silence
by Thomas Hood
The Silence
by Philip Schultz
What are the consequences of silence?
by Bhanu Kapil Rider