The Three Silences of Molinos
The Three Silences of Molinos - meaning Summary
Three Stages Toward Silence
Longfellow outlines three progressive silences—of speech, desire, and thought—learned from a distraught Spanish monk who sought a perfect, mystical quiet that sometimes revealed otherworldly sounds. The poem links this interior discipline to a contemporary ascetic figure, the "Hermit of Amesbury," suggesting that a life oriented toward the spiritual yields occasional revelations and that true silence is both practiced and receptive to transcendent voices.
Read Complete AnalysesThree Silences there are: the first of speech, The second of desire, the third of thought; This is the lore a Spanish monk, distraught With dreams and visions, was the first to teach. These Silences, commingling each with each, Made up the perfect Silence, that he sought And prayed for, and wherein at times he caught Mysterious sounds from realms beyond our reach. O thou, whose daily life anticipates The life to come, and in whose thought and word The spiritual world preponderates. Hermit of Amesbury! thou too hast heard Voices and melodies from beyond the gates, And speakest only when thy soul is stirred!
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