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EARL OF ROCHESTER ON SILENCE - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

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EARL OF ROCHESTER

ON SILENCE

    • Silence! coeval with Eternity,
    • Thou wert ere Nature’s self began to be,
    • ’T was one vast nothing all, and all slept fast in thee.
    • Thine was the sway ere Heav’n was form’d, or earth,
    • Ere fruitful thought conceiv’d Creation’s birth,
    • Or midwife word gave aid, and spoke the infant forth.
    • Then various elements against thee join’d,
    • In one more various animal combin’d,
    • And framed the clam’rous race of busy humankind.
    • The tongue mov’d gently first, and speech was low,
    • Till wrangling Science taught its noise and show,
    • And wicked Wit arose, thy most abusive foe.
    • But rebel Wit deserts thee oft in vain;
    • Lost in the maze of words he turns again,
    • And seeks a surer state, and courts thy gentle reign.
    • Afflicted Sense thou kindly dost set free,
    • Oppress’d with argumental tyranny,
    • And routed Reason finds a safe retreat in thee.
    • With thee in private modest Dulness lies,
    • And in thy bosom lurks in thought’s disguise;
    • Thou varnisher of fools, and cheat of all the wise!
    • Yet thy indulgence is by both confest;
    • Folly by thee lies sleeping in the breast,
    • And ’t is in thee at last that Wisdom seeks for rest.
    • Silence, the knave’s repute, the whore’s good name,
    • The only honour of the wishing dame;
    • The very want of tongue makes thee a kind of Fame.
    • But couldst thou seize some tongues that now are free,
    • How Church and State should be obliged to thee!
    • At Senate and at Bar how welcome wouldst thou be!
    • Yet speech, ev’n there, submissively withdraws
    • From rights of subjects, and the poor man’s cause;
    • Then pompous Silence reigns, and stills the noisy Laws.
    • Past services of friends, good deeds of foes,
    • What fav’rites gain, and what the nation owes,
    • Fly the forgetful world, and in thy arms repose.
    • The country wit, religion of the town,
    • The courtier’s learning, policy o’ th’ gown,
    • Are best by thee express’d, and shine in thee alone.
    • The parson’s cant, the lawyer’s sophistry,
    • Lord’s quibble, critic’s jest, all end in thee;
    • All rest in peace at last, and sleep eternally.