Silence
There is a silence where hath been no sound,There is a silence where no sound may be,In the cold grave--under the deep deep sea,Or in wide desert where no life is found,Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound;No voice is hush'd--no life treads silently,But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free.That never spoke, over the idle ground:But in green ruins, in the desolate wallsOf antique palaces, where Man hath been,Though the dun fox, or wild hyaena, calls,And owls, that flit continually between,Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan,--There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- flit a.
- Nimble; quick; swift. See Fleet.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Silence is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, Project Gutenberg ebook #15652; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hood, Silence, in The Song of the Shirt, and Other Poems (1826–1845), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15652, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hood-poetical-works/silence.html, id L20057.
Form and metre
Silence is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 ABBAA-BAC-C-DD soundA · beB · seaB · foundA · profoundA · silently · freeB · groundA · wallsC · been · callsC · between · moanD · aloneD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is a silence where hath been no sound, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| There is a silence where no sound may be, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| In the cold grave--under the deep deep sea, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or in wide desert where no life is found, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| No voice is hush'd--no life treads silently, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free. | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| That never spoke, over the idle ground: | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| But in green ruins, in the desolate walls | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of antique palaces, where Man hath been, | 10 | ·˘//˘˘···· |
| Though the dun fox, or wild hyaena, calls, | 9 | ········· |
| And owls, that flit continually between, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan,-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘·˘/ |
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.