The Whisper / Richard Leigh

The Whisper
Fairest, what means this close address,

As if you would a hearing steal?

Since words were given thoughts to express,

Why should soft words your thoughts conceal?

While thus your mind to breathe you teach

A language secret as your thought,

You sin against the end of speech,

Which when it hides to lie is taught.

The whispering air so soft does steal,

As conscious whom it must obey,

Your secret yielding to conceal,

Without the least sound slides away.

Unwilling to spread forth the news,

As dreading to displease the fair,

It does through secret pipes diffuse,

As loth to mix with common air.

Your words with silent motions glide,

As gently as from you they came;

From ways of noise they far divide,

And leave the road of common fame.

I’ll hunt thee out where’er they bear,

And, breathing close, their steps pursue,

And, as I gather in the air,

Each breath shall voice the winds anew.