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The poems of Edgar Allan Poe cover

The poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Chapter 34: SILENCE
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About This Book

A curated volume of lyrical and narrative verse that repeatedly returns to themes of loss, mourning, and yearning for unattainable beauty. The poems rely on precise meter, inventive rhyme, and vivid gothic and dreamlike imagery to produce a haunting musicality. Selections range from intimate, tender lyrics to ornate, macabre narratives, alternating elegiac reflection with dramatic tableaux. An introductory essay and decorative illustrations frame the poems and connect their emotional intensity to the poet’s temperament and critical reception.


SILENCE

There are some qualities—some incorporate things,
That have a double life, which thus is made
A type of that twin entity which springs
From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.
There is a two-fold Silence—sea and shore—
Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places,
Newly with grass o’ergrown; some solemn graces,
Some human memories and tearful lore,
Render him terrorless: his name’s “No More.”
He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!
No power hath he of evil in himself;
But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!)
Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf,
That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod
No foot of man), commend thyself to God!

SILENCE