Death & Dying
Substitution
From Poems (1844; Wikisource 1887 text)
When some beloved voice that was to you
Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
And silence against which you dare not cry,
Aches round you like a strong disease and new—
What hope? what help? what music will undo
That silence to your sense? Not friendship's sigh—
Not reason's subtle count! Not melody
Of viols, nor of pipes that Faunus blew—
Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales,
Whose hearts leap upward through the cypress trees
To the clear moon; nor yet the spheric laws
Self-chanted,—nor the angels' sweet All hails,
Met in the smile of God. Nay, none of these.
Speak Thou, availing Christ!—and fill this pause.
Cite this poem
MLA
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Substitution.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_e/254/.
Chicago
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Substitution.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/browning_e/254/.
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