Substitution

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 viols, 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 spheric 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.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning