Silence. A Sonnet

Henry King 1592 (Worminghall, Buckinghamshire) – 1669 (Chichester)



Peace my hearts blab, be ever dumb,
Sorrowes speak loud without a tongue:
And my perplexed thoughts forbear
To breath your selves in any ear:
Tis scarce a true or manly grief
Which gaddes abroad to find relief.
Was ever stomack that lackt meat
Nourisht by what another eat?
Can I bestow it, or will woe
Forsake me when I bid it goe?
Then Ile believe a wounded breast
May heal by shrift, and purchase rest.
But if imparting it I do
Not ease my self, but trouble two,
'Tis better I alone possess
My treasure of unhappiness:
Engrossing that which is my own
No longer then it is unknown.
If silence be a kind of death,
He kindles grief who gives it breath;
But let it rak't in embers lye,
On thine own hearth 'twill quickly dye;
And spight of fate, that very wombe
Which carries it, shall prove its tombe.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

46 sec read
35

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIJKKLLMMAA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 809
Words 154
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24

Henry King

Henry King was an English poet who served as Bishop of Chichester. more…

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