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Home  »  The Book of Georgian Verse  »  Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762–1837)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.

Echo and Silence

Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762–1837)

IN eddying course when leaves began to fly,

And autumn in her lap the stores to strew,

As ’mid wild scenes I chanced the muse to woo

Thro’ glens untrod, and woods that frown’d on high,

Two sleeping nymphs, with wonder mute I spy:—

And lo! she’s gone—in robe of dark green hue

’Twas Echo from her sister Silence flew:

For quick the hunter’s horn resounded to the sky.

In shade affrighted Silence melts away.

Not so her sister. Hark! for onward still

With far-heard step she takes her listening way,

Bounding from rock to rock, and hill to hill:

Ah! mark the merry maid, in mocking play,

With thousand mimic tones the laughing forest fill.