BEST OF ALL

Of all good gifts that the Lord lets fall,

Is not silence the best of all?

The deep, sweet hush when the song is closed,

And every sound but a voiceless ghost;

And every sigh, as we listening leant,

A breathless quiet of vast content?

The laughs we laughed have a purer ring

With but their memory echoing;

And the joys we voiced, and the words we said,

Seem so dearer for being dead.

So of all good gifts that the Lord lets fall,

Is not silence the best of all?