Classic Poem

Stay here awhile, — 't is good! — Amid the shadows looming
Widely, with jagged edge, by moonlight from the pines —
Silence is over all! The sounds on hilltops booming
Have here no leave to bring of heart's unrest the signs.

I will not go there where the stones, my faith deceiving,
Fall from beneath my heel, as the cliff's edge I tread,
Sheer to the beach below; where the great waves are leaving,
And rushing on, the shore — the play of waters dread.

Thou, Silence, art alone before me, 'neath the quiet
Of the deep stars, thou empress of feeling and of thought —
But there the rough wave comes, and brings its splashing riot —
I will not go there where all is with tumult fraught.