| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | The Silence | | By John Gould Fletcher |
| | From “Down the Mississippi”
THERE is a silence which I carry about with me always— | |
| A silence perpetual, for it is self-created; | |
| A silence of heat, of water, of unchecked fruitfulness, | |
| Through which each year the heavy harvests bloom, and burst, and fall. | |
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| Deep, matted green silence of my South, | 5 |
| Often, within the push and the scorn of great cities, | |
| I have seen that mile-wide waste of water swaying out to you, | |
| And on its current glimmering I am going to the sea. | |
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| There is a silence I have achieved—I have walked beyond its threshold. | |
| I know it is without horizons, boundless, fathomless, perfect. | 10 |
| And some day maybe, far away, | |
| I shall curl up in it at last and sleep an endless sleep. | | | | |
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