Silentium Amoris Poem by Oscar Wilde. Read about other popular works by Oscar Wilde.. Read about other popular works by Oscar Wilde.
The text of Poem Silentium Amoris
Hurries the pallid and reluctant moon
Back to her sombre cave, ere she hath won
A single ballad from the nightingale,
So doth thy Beauty make my lips to fail,
And all my sweetest singing out of tune. And as at dawn across the level mead
On wings impetuous, some wind will come,
And with its too harsh kisses break the reed
Which was its only instrument of song,
So my too stormy passions work me wrong,
And for excess of Love, my Love is dumb. But surely unto Thee mine eyes did show
Why I am silent, and my lute unstrung;
Else it were better we should part, and go,
Thou to some lips of sweeter melody,
And I to nurse the barren memory
Of unkissed kisses, and songs never sung.
The Poet
The poet of this beautiful piece is Oscar Wilde. Requiring no separate introduction, this man was a genius during his lifetime and is now a legend with no pair.
He is renowned for his poems, short stories, novels, quotes, plays, and essays.
Review of Silentium Amoris
This is a love poem that is heartfelt and simply beautiful. Wilde, here, is the voice of a lover who is confessing to his Lady Love. He wishes to sing to her but her Beauty is enough to make him dumb. He finds he cannot sing the songs that he could sing so sweetly and he notices he cannot even speak; his lips fail him.
However, he tells his Love that she must have understood by looking into his eyes, the reason for his silence and his “unstrung lute”. If she didn’t, he would rather part ways with her for that would mean she could not read his eyes and judge how speechless her presence made him.
She could then go to some man who would not stammer or lose his words or his tune while singing to her while he would nurse the memory he had of her, dreaming of ‘unkissed kisses’.
This poem portrays two very strong emotions- love and self-respect. Although he loves his lady, he would rather she left to be with another man than stay with her if she did not reciprocate.
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