The Silence of Love
I could praise you once with beautiful words ere you cameAnd entered my life with love in a wind of flame.I could lure with a song from afar my bird to its nest,But with pinions drooping together silence is best.
In the Land of Beautiful Silence the winds are laid,And life grows quietly one in the cloudy shade.I will not waken the passion that sleeps in the heart,For the winds that blew us together may blow us apart.
Fear not the stillness; for doubt and despair shall ceaseWith the gentle voices guiding us into peace.Our dreams will change as they pass through the gates of gold,And Quiet, the tender shepherd, shall keep the fold.
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- 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
The Silence of Love is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Divine Vision, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #36913; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George William Russell, The Silence of Love, in The Divine Vision and Other Poems (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36913, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/russell-divine-vision/the-silence-of-love.html, id L11539.
Form and metre
The Silence of Love is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.3 syllables. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB cameA · flameA · nestB · bestB
- 2 AABB laidA · shadeA · heartB · apartB
- 3 AABB ceaseA · peaceA · goldB · foldB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I could praise you once with beautiful words ere you came | 13 | ······/˘˘···· |
| And entered my life with love in a wind of flame. | 13 | ·/˘˘········· |
| I could lure with a song from afar my bird to its nest, | 14 | ·······˘/····· |
| But with pinions drooping together silence is best. | 13 | ··/˘/˘˘/˘/˘·· |
| In the Land of Beautiful Silence the winds are laid, | 13 | ····/˘˘/˘···· |
| And life grows quietly one in the cloudy shade. | 12 | ···/˘˘···/˘· |
| I will not waken the passion that sleeps in the heart, | 13 | ···/˘·/˘····· |
| For the winds that blew us together may blow us apart. | 14 | ······˘/˘···˘/ |
| Fear not the stillness; for doubt and despair shall cease | 12 | ···/˘···˘/·· |
| With the gentle voices guiding us into peace. | 12 | ··/˘/˘/˘···· |
| Our dreams will change as they pass through the gates of gold, | 13 | /˘··········· |
| And Quiet, the tender shepherd, shall keep the fold. | 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.