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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN A LIBRARY, by LENORE MAUDE CROUDACE First Line: Silence more eloquent than noise or sound Last Line: For thought transcending our little human span. Subject(s): Books; Librarians & Libraries; Reading; Library; Librarians | |||
Silence more eloquent than noise or sound . . . As you cross the border line from the outer world, You leave behind the dirt of the common ground, And the flag of mental life you feel unfurled. There is the atmosphere of wind and sea, God's gift to man from frozen Pole to Pole; Not this where books are piled up one by one And the mind of man still probes its brother soul. Reason vibrating in the particles of air, The sunbeam's mote is charged with electric thrill, For all the Olympian hosts are gathered there, And you are potter's clay to their great will -- The will to lift the stagnant mind from sloth, To make you take with thought a sacred oath. The wars that deface the world are marshaled there; The story of the ages' thirst to kill; But filtered through the printed words' soft glare Battle recedes, no more a major thrill. Dear love would hardly know its own delight Without the words the inspired poets sing; And heaven itself is but a blinding light Till Paul and Virgil describe the angel's wing. In Babel's tower, when no one understands, The home of books is refuge for the maimed, And the heart its solace finds from long dead hands, Life's tragic solitude at once reclaimed. Thank God for all that lifts the soul of man, For thought transcending our little human span. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FATHER OF PREDICAMENTS by HEATHER MCHUGH HER MONOLOGUE OF DARK CREPE WITH EDGES OF LIGHT by NORMAN DUBIE LOVE POEM FOR THE FORTY-SECOND STREET LIBRARY by DAVID IGNATOW THE LIBRARIAN by PETER JOHNSON BECAUSE OF LIBRARIES WE CAN SAY THESE THINGS by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE IN THE READING ROOM by DAVID FERRY GO DOWN DEATH; A FUNERAL SERMON by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |
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