Deaf and Dumb

She has no voice, her lips are still,
Our words she cannot hear:
We watch her with the silent thrill
That calls the soul to prayer.
No joys that we in common have
Her spirit can intone:
She cannot hear another's love,
She cannot speak her own.
Sweet-sounding thoughts, that never passed
Her lips, fill up her smile,
And on her face a brightness cast, —
As when words pause awhile.
With her, as with the angel-kind,
Her thoughts can swiftly reach
All hearts, in converse of the mind.
And need not human speech.
Her voice is not of earth, to stir
The frantic chords of love;
It is a keepsake lent by her
Unto the choirs above.
Beyond the portal of her ear
Our words must never wind,
Lest erring thoughts should there appear
And evil be divined.
But when her eyes their love recount,
What words into us come!
As by a sermon on the mount
Our lips are stricken dumb.