If a word were to be described by stating the negative of its opposite, then silence would be known as absence of speech.
All those blessed with this virtue, know that the absence of speech is often more expressive than words could be. They are moreover, content, not handicapped by the compulsive desire to speak requiring the crutch of ever-available speech. They are the calmest people I have ever known.
Perhaps, like some ancient form learnt only through a long arduous discipline, speech and silence maybe practiced too. But paradoxically, words are required to tell of silence.
An Ode to Silence
Bereft of calm
On torrid eves
We seek solace in words,
Writing a mask
For a silence
Which tells of our hollow faces.
But true silence,
Is a word
Which speaks itself
By saying
Nothing at all.
Not a riddle to
Puzzle the hours away,
But a teller of a calm ecstasy,
Not in need
Of an orgasm of words.
Sometimes
She talks
To hide,
To shatter
The silence
Too cold
Too cutting.
Words are the masks
She writes.
But a wise one counsels,
Silence is a call
To speak
Without words
Overheard by no
‘Eves’-dropping
Snake in Eden.
A beauty
Grown
In cloister.
2 comments:
Oh! I wanted to add.. silence has to be more than just the absence of speech or sound.To look at it as merely the opposite.. seems a bit reductive doesn't it? Just a thought!
yes, silence is much more. just that in literature, there is a particular literary device, whose name i cannot recall, through which something might be described by stating the negative of its opposite. That is why I started off with this idea on silence, since the device opened up several pathways of thought, even for other concepts. Thanks for the comment
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