ratanapan poem 1
The Quiet Hour (1922)
By Jonathan David
Jonathan David, widely known as the pen name of Stanley Johnson, was a poet from the Southern United States. “The Quiet Hour” was written in 1922 in the free verse. He published his poems in a journal called Fugitive with various other poets located around Vanderbilt University during the 1920’s. “The Quiet Hour” is told from the point of view of the speaker who is awake and watching someone who is asleep. The speaker is pondering the concept of sleep and its surroundings from an outside perspective while noting the strange yet relaxing tranquility around the two. The poet associates sleep and peacefulness as the two interwoven themes throughout the poem. The person whom he is watching is resting and still as well as the environment and its elements, using words such as “lambs,” “candle,” and “heaven.” Although he does not ever find sleep in this poem, the speaker can find peace in the environment around himself.
-------------------------------------------
When the hour is hushed and you lie still,
So quiet is the room about me
It seems perhaps that you are gone,
Sunken to a marble sleep.
I hear no sound; my quiet will,
Passive as the lambs at rest,
Stirs not the quaint forgetfulness
But only murmurs, “Sleep is strange!”
The low moon at the lattice going
Rests no more quietly than you at peace.
Hushed is the candle; the hour is late,
And I, poor witness of extreme change,
I think perhaps then heaven opens
Like the unfolding of your hand in sleep—
Your cold white hand—to close again—
While I sit staring at the marble gate.
By Jonathan David
Jonathan David, widely known as the pen name of Stanley Johnson, was a poet from the Southern United States. “The Quiet Hour” was written in 1922 in the free verse. He published his poems in a journal called Fugitive with various other poets located around Vanderbilt University during the 1920’s. “The Quiet Hour” is told from the point of view of the speaker who is awake and watching someone who is asleep. The speaker is pondering the concept of sleep and its surroundings from an outside perspective while noting the strange yet relaxing tranquility around the two. The poet associates sleep and peacefulness as the two interwoven themes throughout the poem. The person whom he is watching is resting and still as well as the environment and its elements, using words such as “lambs,” “candle,” and “heaven.” Although he does not ever find sleep in this poem, the speaker can find peace in the environment around himself.
-------------------------------------------
When the hour is hushed and you lie still,
So quiet is the room about me
It seems perhaps that you are gone,
Sunken to a marble sleep.
I hear no sound; my quiet will,
Passive as the lambs at rest,
Stirs not the quaint forgetfulness
But only murmurs, “Sleep is strange!”
The low moon at the lattice going
Rests no more quietly than you at peace.
Hushed is the candle; the hour is late,
And I, poor witness of extreme change,
I think perhaps then heaven opens
Like the unfolding of your hand in sleep—
Your cold white hand—to close again—
While I sit staring at the marble gate.
| Previous page on path | Minna Ratanapan Introduction, page 1 of 6 | Next page on path |
Discussion of "ratanapan poem 1"
Add your voice to this discussion.
Checking your signed in status ...