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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COMPANION OF QUIET by JOSEPH AUSLANDER

Poet Analysis

First Line: YOU WHO HAVE SHARED THE SUNSET WITH ME KNOWS
Last Line: AND LET NO WORD BE CONTEMPLATE OR SAID.
Subject(s): QUIET LIFE;
I

You who have shared the sunset with me, known
Tranquillities of tone,
Cathedral me in thought, be architect,
And out of silences erect
A temple where we two may stand alone.

And love will be the pontiff of our peace,
And beauty without cease
Will stain the bleeding oriels; night will glow
With candles: we will know
The pressure of cool hands and long release.

II

When the fires of thought are low and burned away,
And one bird ripples to the bronzing west,
And hearthlight flickers with the fading day
Against the shadows in the room of rest,
And quiet things are like your hands caressed:

Then when the air is smoothed to more than sleep
In a fine agitation of all sense,
Loosen the beautiful silence that you keep
Locked in the cool cave of deliverance
And whelm me in a velvet violence.

Hands that have never failed me in the hour
Of my most tranquil need, be on my head
The speechless benediction of a flower
Fallen from a garland of the dead,
And let no word be contemplate or said.



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