Silence
Silence - context Summary
Published in 1839 Collection
Published in 1839 in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Poe's "Silence" is a brief lyric that distinguishes two kinds of silence: one communal, tied to places and memory, the other solitary, an eerie presence that haunts individuals. Placed within a collection devoted to the strange and the macabre, the poem frames silence as both consoling and potentially ominous, asking readers to acknowledge spiritual limits when confronted by its shadow. Knowing its publication and collection helps situate the poem among Poe's recurring concerns with death, the uncanny, and the border between matter and spirit.
Read Complete AnalysesThere are some qualities - some incorporate things, that have a double life, which thus is made a type of that twin entity which springs from matter and light, evinced in solid and shade. There is a twofold Silence - sea and shore - body and soul. One dwells in lonely places, newly with grass o’ergrown; Some solemn graces, some human memories and tearful lore, render him terrorless: his name’s “No More.” He is the corporate Silence: dread him not! no power hath he of evil in himself; But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!) bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf, that haunteth the lone regions where hath trod no foot of man), commend thyself to God!
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