Chapter 80 Substitution
WHEN some beloved voice that was to you
Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
And silence, against which you dare not cry,
Aches round you like a strong disease and new--
What hope? what help? what music will undo
That silence to your sense? Not friendships sigh,
Not reasons subtle count; not melody
Of violence, nor of pipes that Faunus blew;
Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales
Whose hearts leap upward through the cypress-trees
To the clear moon; nor yet the spherical laws
Self-chanted, nor the angels sweet All hails,
Met in the smile of God: nay, none of these.
Speak THOU, availing Christ!--and fill this pause.