Silence Please: A poem for every kind of quiet
Bodleian Library
Opening in wonder and ending in hush, this anthology invites you to slow down, breathe and listen. Silence is hard to find in our modern world of 24/7 news and constant messages, but here you will find 100 poems to form a treasure-house of silences. Organised into ten sections including Anatomies of Silence, Intimacy, The Natural World, The Quiet Life, Night, Loss & Absence and Silencings, these poems span twelve centuries, ranging from Old English works such as Beowulf and The Wanderer to recent poems by Benjamin Zephaniah, Jane Hirshfield and Sarah O. Adedeji. Familiar names – Shakespeare, Keats, Tennyson, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning – sit alongside less well-known writers. Each poem is presented in clear, modern language with helpful notes.
Whether you want to luxuriate in exquisite stillness, share the speechlessness of loss, laugh at awkward pauses or rest in wordless companionship, Silence Please has a poem for every kind of quiet.
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