In the Silence / Lee Wilson Dodd

In the Silence  (1906)  by Lee Wilson Dodd

from A Modern Alchemist, and other poems, 1906

In the Silence

Distant hills, photo by Superior Natural Forest. Licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Here at the hill-top . . rest . . tranquillity.
Hush; do not move; draw deep
This breath of freedom, which is never free,
Because we may not keep
The pureness and the silence and the calm,
The soul-anointing balm
Like to a waking sleep.

O, hush; speak low . .
Linger a moment ere you rise to go.
This moment that is yours, this waif of rest
Quieting now your breast,
Think that it will not follow as you pass
Down to the populous places from the grass
Of this fair slope;
The ever-narrowing scope
Of your calm vision must narrow too this sense
Of world-pervading peace, immutable, immense . .
This harvest-tide of hope.

O, hush; a little longer . . nay, the dream
Mirrored an instant on the moving stream
Of circumstance,
Who shall withhold, restrain?
The unsummoned chance
Who shall recall again?

This poem is in the public domain