Silent Places
SWEET are the silent places of the earth,Green heart of woods through which no wind doth pass,Long sloping meadows sown with silken grass,Old gardens thick with scents of death, and birth.
Pale dome of morning, ere the first bird sings,Stretching above the silent palisade,Vague and unearthly, wrought of light and shade.O’er which the dusk still hangs with starlit wings.
The hush of mid-day in the languid south,Where marble borders rim the limpid pools,In whose blue depths the ardent noontide coolsHer burning limbs, and bathes her sun-kissed mouth.
And above all things, silent and at rest,I mind me of a little quiet bay,Set like a sapphire in the golden day,With never ship to scourge its tranquil breast.
Oh! happy waters of that quiet bay,So near my heart—and yet so far away!
Words in this poem
- palisade n.
- A strong, long stake, one end of which is set firmly in the ground, and the other is sharpened; also, a fence formed of such stakes set in the ground as a means of defense. [F. palissade, cf. Sp. palizada, It. palizzata, palizzo, LL. palissata; all fr. L. palus a stake, pale. See Pale a stake.]
- unearthly a.
- Not terrestrial; supernatural; preternatural; hence, weird; appalling; terrific; as, an unearthly sight or sound.
- starlit a.
- Lighted by the stars; starlight.
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Silent Places is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, Silent Places, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/silent-places.html, id L22690.
Form and metre
Silent Places is 18 lines in 5 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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.
- 1 ABBA earthA · passB · grassB · birthA
- 2 ABBA singsA · palisadeB · shadeB · wingsA
- 3 ABBA southA · poolsB · coolsB · mouthA
- 4 ABBA restA · bayB · dayB · breastA
- 5 AA bayA · awayA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| SWEET are the silent places of the earth, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Green heart of woods through which no wind doth pass, | 10 | ·········· |
| Long sloping meadows sown with silken grass, | 10 | ·/˘/···/˘· |
| Old gardens thick with scents of death, and birth. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Pale dome of morning, ere the first bird sings, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Stretching above the silent palisade, | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| Vague and unearthly, wrought of light and shade. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| O’er which the dusk still hangs with starlit wings. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The hush of mid-day in the languid south, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where marble borders rim the limpid pools, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| In whose blue depths the ardent noontide cools | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Her burning limbs, and bathes her sun-kissed mouth. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And above all things, silent and at rest, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I mind me of a little quiet bay, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Set like a sapphire in the golden day, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With never ship to scourge its tranquil breast. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Oh! happy waters of that quiet bay, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| So near my heart—and yet so far away! | 10 | ········˘/ |
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.