The Three Silences Of Molinos

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    TO JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

    Three Silences there are: the first of speech,
        The second of desire, the third of thought;
        This is the lore a Spanish monk, distraught
        With dreams and visions, was the first to teach.
    These Silences, commingling each with each,
        Made up the perfect Silence, that he sought
        And prayed for, and wherein at times he caught
        Mysterious sounds from realms beyond our reach.
    O thou, whose daily life anticipates
        The life to come, and in whose thought and word
        The spiritual world preponderates.
    Hermit of Amesbury! thou too hast heard
        Voices and melodies from beyond the gates,
        And speakest only when thy soul is stirred!