Silence

SHE whom I seek?
One lovelier than beauty,
Rarer than rapture, muted as a sigh,
Timid as spray that flees from falling water,
Hushed as the moon that dreams along the sky.
She can be startled by a tired petal
Drifting in perfume to its lovely sleep,
She will draw back if snowflakes clash in falling,
Or stately tides turn, chanting, to the deep.
All quiet things find sanctuary with her:
Night, and the clouds, the cedars’ ancient hush,
Lost lakes that sleep forgotten in the moonlight,
Hilltops that hoard the sunset’s fading flush.
Silence her name is, and the limpid cadence
Echoes the chiming music of her eyes,
Silence, whose touch is comforting as shadow,
Silence, whose look is starry as the skies.
When she is near, rapt memories come floating
Like silver moths across a summer dusk,
While down the wind there stirs a far-off fragrance
Of mignonette and rosemary and musk.
Only with her will you hear long-stilled voices,
Tender with love and crowning with sweet praise,
Or catch the rolling drums that beat to duty
Through anguished nights, or dull but dauntless days.
Only with her there moves that sister shadow,
Friendly yet strange, familiar yet unknown,
Whose eyes you seek in troubled contemplation,
Till, faltering, you know them for your own!

So keep I watch for her, my best companion,
Where, on the roads of time, she wanders by:
Timid as spray that flees from falling water,
Hushed as the moon that dreams along the sky.