In a Silence
Heart to heart!And the stillness of night and the moonlight, like hushed breathingSilently, stealthily moving across thy hair!
O womanly face!Tender and strong and lucent with infinite feeling,Shrinking with startled joy, like wind-struck water,And yet so frank, so unashamed of love!
Ay, for there it is, love--that's the deepest.Love's not love in the dark.Light loves wither i' the sun, but Love endureth,Clothing himself with the light as with a robe.
I would bare my soul to thy sight--Leave not a secret deep unsearched,Unrevealing its shame or its glory.Love without Truth shall die as a soul without God.A lying love is the love of a dayBut the brave and true shall love forever.
Build Love a house;Let the walls be thick;Shut him in from the sight of men;But hide not Love from himself.
Ah, the summer night!The wind in the trees and the moonlight!And my kisses on thy throatAnd thy breathing in my hair!
Silent, lips to lips!But our souls have held speech, thought answering echoing thought,Though the only words were kisses.
Words in this poem
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- lucent a.
- Shining; bright; resplendent. [L. lucens, p. pr. of lucere to shine, fr. lux, lucis, light.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In a Silence is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, In a Silence, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/in-a-silence.html, id L24706.
Form and metre
In a Silence is 28 lines in 7 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 6 AA-- nightA · moonlightA · throat · hair
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Heart to heart! | 3 | ··· |
| And the stillness of night and the moonlight, like hushed breathing | 14 | ··/˘····/···/˘ |
| Silently, stealthily moving across thy hair! | 11 | /˘/˘˘/˘˘/·· |
| O womanly face! | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Tender and strong and lucent with infinite feeling, | 12 | /˘···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Shrinking with startled joy, like wind-struck water, | 11 | /˘·/˘····/˘ |
| And yet so frank, so unashamed of love! | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Ay, for there it is, love--that's the deepest. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Love's not love in the dark. | 6 | ······ |
| Light loves wither i' the sun, but Love endureth, | 12 | ··/˘·····˘/˘ |
| Clothing himself with the light as with a robe. | 11 | /˘˘/······· |
| I would bare my soul to thy sight-- | 8 | ········ |
| Leave not a secret deep unsearched, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Unrevealing its shame or its glory. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Love without Truth shall die as a soul without God. | 12 | ············ |
| A lying love is the love of a day | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But the brave and true shall love forever. | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Build Love a house; | 4 | ···· |
| Let the walls be thick; | 5 | ····· |
| Shut him in from the sight of men; | 8 | ········ |
| But hide not Love from himself. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Ah, the summer night! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| The wind in the trees and the moonlight! | 9 | ·······/· |
| And my kisses on thy throat | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And thy breathing in my hair! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Silent, lips to lips! | 5 | /˘··· |
| But our souls have held speech, thought answering echoing thought, | 12 | ·/·····/˘/˘· |
| Though the only words were kisses. | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.