Samuel Roth

I KNOW the shady moving of its waves

Circling old shores of thought all solemnly;

Its loves and hates; its moods storm-taught and free.

For like the sea it hides a million graves

Beneath an iron gleam that darkly braves

The sun and storm. It heaves too like the sea,

Full of its life, and flees to Memory

Even as she flees to her shaggy caves.

Three massive silences creation’s Lord

Wrought in the heart of life: before the birth

The silence of the dead stirring again;

The hush of Love wielding a flaming sword

Which holds the swerving passions of the earth;

And the great silence in the speech of men.