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Miscellaneous Poems.

On SILENCE.

By Lord Rochester.

I.

S ilence! coeval with Eternity ;

Thou wert, e’er Nature’s self began to be,

’Twas one vast Nothing, all, and all slept fast in thee.

II.

Thine was the sway, e’er heav’n was form’d, on earth,E’er fruitful Thought conceiv’d creation’s birth,

Or midwife Word gave aid, and spoke the infant forth.

III.

Then various elements, against thee join'd,

In one more various animal combin’d,

And fram’d the clam’rous race of busy Human kind.

IV.

The tongue mov’d gently first, and speech was low,’Till wrangling Science taught it noise and fflow,

And wicked Wit arose, thy most abusive foe.

V.

But rebel Wit deserts thee oft’ in vain;

Lost in the maze of words he turns again,

And seeks a surer state, and courts thy gentle reign.

VI.

Afflicted Sense thou kindly dost set free,

'Oppress’d with argumental tyranny,

And routed Reason finds a safe retreat in thee.

VII.