Poem by Alice Meynell

To Silence

"SPACE, THE BOUND OF A SOLID": SILENCE, THEN,
            THE FORM OF A MELODY

Silence, for thine idleness I raise
My silence-bounded singing in thy praise,
But for thy moulding of my Mozart's tune,
Thy hold upon the bird that sings the moon,
            Thy magisterial ways.

Man's lovely definite melody-shapes are thine,
Outlined, controlled, compressed, complete, divine.
Also thy fine intrusions do I trace,
Thy afterthoughts, thy wandering, thy grace,
            Within the poet's line.

Thy secret is the song that is to be.
Music had never stature but for thee,
Sculptor! strong as the sculptor Space whose hand
Urged the Discobolus and bade him stand.
    * * * * *
Man, on his way to Silence, stops to hear and see.

1. Unlinked
2. Parentage
3. To Tintoretto in Venice
4. Free Will
5. The Two Questions

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