Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Fancy: III. Mythical: Mystical: Legendary | | Echo and Silence | | Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762–1837) |
| | | IN 1 eddying course when leaves began to fly, | |
| And Autumn in her lap the store to strew, | |
| As mid wild scenes I chanced the Muse to woo, | |
| Through glens untrod, and woods that frowned on high, | |
| Two sleeping nymphs with wonder mute I spy! | 5 |
| And, lo, she ’s gone!—In robe of dark-green hue, | |
| ’T was 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, | 10 |
| With far-heard step, she takes her listening way, | |
| Bounding from rock to rock, and hill to hill. | |
| Ah, mark the merry maid in mockful play | |
| With thousand mimic tones the laughing forest fill! | |
| | | Note 1. Declared by Wordsworth to be the best sonnet in the English language. [back] | | |
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