The solemn Sea of Silence lies between us; <br /> <br />I know thou livest, and them lovest me, <br /> <br />And yet I wish some white ship would come sailing <br /> <br />Across the ocean, beating word from thee. <br /> <br />The dead calm awes me with its awful stillness. <br /> <br />No anxious doubts or fears disturb my breast; <br /> <br />I only ask some little wave of language, <br /> <br />To stir this vast infinitude of rest. <br /> <br />I am oppressed with this great sense of loving; <br /> <br />So much I give, so much receive from thee; <br /> <br />Like subtle incense, rising from a censer, <br /> <br />So floats the fragrance of thy love round me. <br /> <br />All speech is poor, and written words unmeaning; <br /> <br />Yet such I ask, blown hither by some wind, <br /> <br />To give relief to this too perfect knowledge, <br /> <br />The Silence so impresses on my mind. <br /> <br />How poor the love that needeth word or message, <br /> <br />To banish doubt or nourish tenderness! <br /> <br />I ask them but to temper love's convictions <br /> <br />The Silence all too fully doth express. <br /> <br />Too deep the language which the spirit utters; <br /> <br />Too vast the knowledge which my soul hath stirred. <br /> <br />Send some white ship across the Sea of Silence, <br /> <br />And interrupt its utterance with a word.<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-speech-of-silence/
