Henry Kendall

Early Poems (1859-70). Silent Tears

What bitter sorrow courses down
 Yon mourner's faded cheek?
Those scalding drops betray a grief
 Within, too full to speak.
Outspoken words cannot express
 The pangs, the pains of years;
They're ne'er so deep or eloquent
 As are those silent tears.

Here is a wound that in the breast
 Must canker, hid'n from sight;
Though all without seems sunny day,
 Within 'tis ever night.
Yet sometimes from this secret source
 The gloomy truth appears;
The wind's dark dungeon must have vent
 If but in silent tears.

The world may deem from outward looks
 That heart is hard and cold;
But oh! could they the mantle lift
 What sorrows would be told!
Then, only then, the truth would show
 Which most the bosom sears:
The pain portrayed by burning words
 Or that by—silent tears.