Skip to content
Linespedia

Silence

By James Whitcomb Riley

Topics: classic

Thousands of thousands of hushed years ago,     Out on the edge of Chaos, all alone     I stood on peaks of vapor, high upthrown     Above a sea that knew nor ebb nor flow,     Nor any motion won of winds that blow,     Nor any sound of watery wail or moan,     Nor lisp of wave, nor wandering undertone     Of any tide lost in the night below.     So still it was, I mind me, as I laid     My thirsty ear against mine own faint sigh     To drink of that, I sipped it, half afraid     'Twas but the ghost of a dead voice spilled by     The one starved star that tottered through the shade     And came tiptoeing toward me down the sky.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Thousands of thousands of hushed years ago,..."

"Silence" is a quintessential example of James Whitcomb Riley's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:James Whitcomb Riley

"Thousands of thousands of hushed years ago,..." by James Whitcomb Riley

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Writ in between the lines of his life-deed         We trace the sacred service of a heart         Answering the Divine command, in every par"

"Crowd about me, little children -         Come and cluster 'round my knee     While I tell a little story         That happened once with me."

"O the night was dark and the night was late,         And the robbers came to rob him;      And they picked the locks of his palace-gate,"

"O her beautiful eyes! they are as blue as the dew         On the violet's bloom when the morning is new,         And the light of their love"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

James Whitcomb Riley

About James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) was an American poet known as the "Hoosier Poet." His dialect poems—including "Little Orphant Annie" and "When the Frost Is on the Punkin"—celebrate rural Indiana life and childhood nostalgia.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"Writ in between the lines of his life-deed        ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.