"Silence" (A Poem)

Despite its short length, Thomas Hood's "Silence" explores the concept from a variety positions, from the reticent depths of the ocean to the stilled confines of the human mind. In fact, the poem's gothic tone, Marion Wynne-Davies highlights, served as inspiration for the surreal dream sequences of Jane Campion's film The Piano (1993).[1]

There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave - under the deep, deep sea,
Or in the wide desert where no life is found,
Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound;
No voice is hushed - no life treads silently,
But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free,
That never spoke, over the idle ground:
But in green ruins, in the desolate walls
Of antique palaces, where Man hath been,
Though the dun fox, or wild hyena, calls,
And owls, that flit continually between,
Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan,
There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone.[2]

Works Referenced 

Hood, Thomas. "Silence." The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hood: With a Biographical Sketch and Notes. Ed. Epes Sargent. Boston, MA: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, 1859. 196.

Wynne-Davies. Marion. "The Rhythm of Difference: Language and Silence in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and The Piano." Post-Colonial Literature: Expanding the Canon. Ed. Deborah Madsen. London: Pluto Press, 1999. 58-71.
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[1] Wynee-Davies, 58. 
[2] Hood, 196.