The Speech of Silence
The solemn Sea of Silence lies between us;I know thou livest, and thou lovest me,And yet I wish some white ship would come sailingAcross the ocean, bearing word from thee.
The dead calm awes me with its awful stillness.No anxious doubts or fears disturb my breast;I only ask some little wave of language,To stir this vast infinitude of rest.
I am oppressed with this great sense of loving;So much I give, so much receive from thee;Like subtle incense, rising from a censer,So floats the fragrance of thy love round me.
All speech is poor, and written words unmeaning;Yet such I ask, blown hither by some wind,To give relief to this too perfect knowledge,The Silence so impresses on my mind.
How poor the love that needeth word or message,To banish doubt or nourish tenderness!I ask them but to temper love's convictionsThe Silence all too fully doth express.
Too deep the language which the spirit utters;Too vast the knowledge which my soul hath stirred.Send some white ship across the Sea of Silence,And interrupt its utterance with a word.
Words in this poem
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- infinitude n.
- The quality or state of being infinite, or without limits; infiniteness.
- censer n.
- A vessel for perfumes; esp. one in which incense is burned. [For incenser, fr. OF. encensier, F. encensoir, fr. LL. incensarium, incensorium, fr. L. incensum incense. See Incense, and cf. Incensory.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Speech of Silence is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The Speech of Silence, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/the-speech-of-silence.html, id L22169.
Form and metre
The Speech of Silence is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 -A-A us · meA · sailing · theeA
- 2 -A-A stillness · breastA · language · restA
- 3 -A-A loving · theeA · censer · meA
- 4 -A-A unmeaning · windA · knowledge · mindA
- 5 -A-A message · tendernessA · convictions · expressA
- 6 -A-A utters · stirredA · silence · wordA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The solemn Sea of Silence lies between us; | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| I know thou livest, and thou lovest me, | 10 | ·········· |
| And yet I wish some white ship would come sailing | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Across the ocean, bearing word from thee. | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| The dead calm awes me with its awful stillness. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| No anxious doubts or fears disturb my breast; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| I only ask some little wave of language, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| To stir this vast infinitude of rest. | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| I am oppressed with this great sense of loving; | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| So much I give, so much receive from thee; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Like subtle incense, rising from a censer, | 11 | ·/˘/·/˘··/˘ |
| So floats the fragrance of thy love round me. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| All speech is poor, and written words unmeaning; | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| Yet such I ask, blown hither by some wind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To give relief to this too perfect knowledge, | 11 | ··˘/···/·/˘ |
| The Silence so impresses on my mind. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| How poor the love that needeth word or message, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| To banish doubt or nourish tenderness! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| I ask them but to temper love's convictions | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| The Silence all too fully doth express. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Too deep the language which the spirit utters; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Too vast the knowledge which my soul hath stirred. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Send some white ship across the Sea of Silence, | 11 | ····˘/···/˘ |
| And interrupt its utterance with a word. | 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.