Now came still evening on, and twilight gray

Had in her sober livery all things clad;

Silence accompany'd; for beast and bird,

They to their grassy couch, these to their nests,

Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;

She all night long her amorous descant sung;

Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmament

With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led

The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,

Rising in clouded majesty, at length

Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light,

And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 598.

Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time.

John Keats (1795-1821): Ode on a Grecian Urn.

Thou hast wounded the spirit that loved thee

And cherish'd thine image for years;

Thou hast taught me at last to forget thee,

In secret, in silence, and tears.

Mrs. (David) Porter: Thou hast wounded the Spirit.

When we two parted

In silence and tears,

Half broken-hearted,

To sever for years.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: When we Two parted.

There was silence deep as death,

And the boldest held his breath

For a time.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844): Battle of the Baltic.

Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;

Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,

Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,

Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Come then, expressive silence, muse His praise.

James Thomson (1700-1748): Hymn. Line 118.

How sweetly did they float upon the wings

Of silence through the empty-vaulted night,

At every fall smoothing the raven down

Of darkness till it smil'd!

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 249.

Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time.

John Keats (1795-1821): Ode on a Grecian Urn.

Midnight brought on the dusky hour

Friendliest to sleep and silence.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book v. Line 667.

There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before;

The evil is null, is nought, is silence implying sound;

What was good shall be good, with for evil so much good more;

On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Abt Vogler. ix.

Silence in love bewrays more woe

Than words, though ne'er so witty:

A beggar that is dumb, you know,

May challenge double pity.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618): The Silent Lover.

The silence that is in the starry sky.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Song at the Feast of Broughton Castle.

Let it be tenable in your silence still.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 2.

No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung;

Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.

Majestic silence!

Reginald Heber (1783-1826): Palestine.

A sound so fine, there's nothing lives

'Twixt it and silence.

James Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862): Virginius, Act v. Sc. 2.

Silence that dreadful bell: it frights the isle

From her propriety.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.

The silence that is in the starry sky.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850): Song at the Feast of Broughton Castle.

Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,

Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Iliad of Homer. Book xiv. Line 251.

The rest is silence.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 2.

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.

Thomas Hood (1798-1845): Sonnet. Silence.

By thunders of white silence.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1809-1861): Hiram Power's Greek Slave.

Now came still evening on, and twilight gray

Had in her sober livery all things clad;

Silence accompany'd; for beast and bird,

They to their grassy couch, these to their nests,

Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale;

She all night long her amorous descant sung;

Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmament

With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led

The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,

Rising in clouded majesty, at length

Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light,

And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 598.

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.

Thomas Hood (1798-1845): Sonnet. Silence.

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.

Thomas Hood (1798-1845): Sonnet. Silence.

I'm on the sea! I'm on the sea!

I am where I would ever be,

With the blue above and the blue below,

And silence wheresoe'er I go.

Bryan W Procter (1787-1874): The Sea.

Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,

And makes night hideous;—answer him, ye owls!

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Dunciad. Book iii. Line 165.