Why Silent?

Henry Timrod 1828 (Charleston) – 1867 (Columbia)



Why am I silent from year to year?
Needs must I sing on these blue March days?
What will you say, when I tell you here,
That already, I think, for a little praise,
       I have paid too dear?

For, I know not why, when I tell my thought,
It seems as though I fling it away;
And the charm wherewith a fancy is fraught,
When secret, dies with the fleeting lay
       Into which it is wrought.

So my butterfly-dreams their golden wings
But seldom unfurl from their chrysalis;
And thus I retain my loveliest things,
While the world, in its worldliness, does not miss
       What a poet sings.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
118

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABXBA CDCDC EFEFE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 582
Words 111
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5

Henry Timrod

Henry Timrod was an American poet, often called the poet laureate of the Confederacy. more…

All Henry Timrod poems | Henry Timrod Books

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    "Why Silent?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/18294/why-silent?>.

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