Afterwards (Smith)
There is a silence in the world
Since we have said farewell;
And beauty with an alien speech
An alien tale would tell.
There is a silence in the world,
Which is not peace nor quiet:
Ever I seek to flee therefrom,
And walk the ways of riot.
But when I hear the music moan
In rooms of thronging laughter,
A tongueless demon drives me forth,
And silence follows after.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1923, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1961, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 62 years or less. This work may 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.
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