i Mmoveable Feet

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

T. Sturge Moore. 1870–

Silence Sings

SO faint, no ear is sure it hears,
So faint and far;
So vast that very near appears
My voice, both here and in each star
Unmeasured leagues do bridge between;
Like that which on a face is seen
Where secrets are;
Sweeping, like veils of lofty balm,
Tresses unbound
O'er desert sand, o'er ocean calm,
I am wherever is not sound;
And, goddess of the truthful face,
My beauty doth instil its grace
That joy abound.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: Should we greet the darkness as an old friend? Can we converse? Will the vision that was planted in my brain, still remain, within the sound of silence?; 01:22
Bel said...: Oh I think the vision in one's brain becomes more vivid in silence. A din destroys it. Music can enhance it, but it needs to be the perfect choice.
I think silence is the soundtrack for our thoughts. I can't think surrounded by noise or background "music".

I don't think silence is dark, though; not always. It can be. I used to be suspicious of it. Now I embrace it.; 10:03
Carl Johnson said...: The poem is significantly too 'poetic' to be any good. It lacks any physicality and the images remain as vague as trying to open your eyes under muddy water. The mountain lion joke says a similar thing much more economically and precisely. It's not just funnier, it's also better 'poetry'; 10:58
Bel said...: Carl: deserts and oceans: yeah, not physical enough, huh? But I can see your point. I also loved the mountain lion and I like the contrast between these two - the poem and the joke.
I disagree the images are vague in the overly poetic poem, though. "O'er desert sand, o'er ocean calm" is quite specific and, to me, does evoke the "sound" of silence.

thanks for comment.

x; 11:16
Carl Johnson said...: It's not enough just to bunch a few words together-

'Quinquireme in the forest
Firetruck in the lake
Aardvark in the library
Are like the music in my silence
The heart in my raindrop
And the vacuum cleaner in the dogged flat'

You feelin' me dawg?; 11:23
Bel said...: Cheap shot alert. eyeroll.; 11:24
Carl Johnson said...: Cheap shot in the eyeroll
Bread broken by the waves
Of the silent forest
And the sussurating seas
Black like a summer's cloud
And green as the sun; 11:27
Anonymous said...: The dark is alive, one has but to listen to hear it. And yes, silence is the blank slate of soundand it can likewise roar.; 12:29