Littell's Living Age/Volume 129/Issue 1671/The Empty Place

Bright faces come and go, fair shapes
     Dance up and down the wall;
A presence in the crowded room
     Takes precedence of all.
We see it night and day, howe'er
     By shine or shadow crost, -
A little vacant spot, wherefrom
     One little face is lost.

The sound of music swells and falls,
     And laughter fills our ears, -
A silence, hollowed out of life,
     Is all our spirit hears.
That silence, like a hush of prayer,
     Can drown the loudest speech,
And, piercing sharp through laugh and song,
     Our inmost sense can reach.

No thunder of the outer world,
     No burning rage of pain,
No passion-storms of love or grief
     That beat on heart and brain,
Beat down with such constraining strength
     The vital forces there,
As that dull, soundless ache of loss
     Which lonely mourners bear.

O little garments in the drawer,
     With such precision spread!
O little chair against the wall!
     O little cradle-bed,
Uncurtained, in the silent room,
     And pillowless and cold!
O mother's arms and tender hands,
     That have no babe to hold!

We know full well the worth and wealth
     Of which we are bereft;
But where are words wherewith to tell
     The emptiness that's left! -
Wherewith to span that shoreless void,
     Sound its unfathomed deeps,
And picture to the common sense
     The sacred thing it keeps.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923. The author died in 1926, so this work is also in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or less. This work may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.