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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 7. THE SILENCE by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER

First Line: THERE IS A SILENCE I CARRY ABOUT WITH ME ALWAYS
Last Line: I WILL CURL UP IN IT AT LAST AND SLEEP AN ENDLESS SLEEP.
Subject(s): MISSISSIPPI RIVER; RIVERS;
There is a silence I carry about with me always;
A silence perpetual, for it is self-created;
A silence of heat, of water, of unchecked fruitfulness
Through which each year the heavy harvests bloom, and burst and fall.

Deep, matted green silence of my South,
Often within the push and scorn of great cities,
I have seen that mile-wide waste of water swaying out to you,
And on its current glimmering, I am going to the sea.

There is a silence I have achieved: I have walked beyond
its threshold;
I know it is without horizons, boundless, fathomless, perfect.
And some day maybe, far away,
I will curl up in it at last and sleep an endless sleep.



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