WHEN some beloved voice that was to you Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly, And silence, against which you dare not cry, Aches round you like a strong disease and new -- What hope? what help? what music will undo That silence to your sense? Not friendship's sigh, Not reason's subtle count; not melody Of viols, nor of pipes that Faunus blew; Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales Whose hearts leap upward through the cypress-trees To the clear moon; nor yet the spheric laws Self-chanted, nor the angels' sweet 'All hails,' Met in the smile of God: nay, none of these. Speak THOU, availing Christ! -- and fill this pause. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THAT GENERAL UTILITY RAG, BY OUR OWN IRVING BERLIN by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS OF MAIDENS' PRAISE: AN INVOCATION by SAINT ALDHELM PSALM 24. DOMINI EST TERRA by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE CLEVEDON VERSES: 9. THE VOICES OF NATURE by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN MEMORIES OF PIONEER DAYS by LUCY BURGMAN AS TO MOONLIGHT by WITTER BYNNER |