Words and the body always have been much pain to me,
Little fetters and drags on immensities
Never to be defined. I am done with these.
Meanings of silence suddenly all grow plain to me.
Something still may sing like a joyous flute in me
Out of the life that dares to be voiced aloud,
But speech no more shall swathe like a burial-shroud
Things unencompassable now eloquent-mute in me.
Poem by Eleanor Farjeon
Meaning of the Poem ‘Silence‘ by Eleanor Farjeon
“Silence” is a powerful and introspective poem about the limits of language and the liberation found in moving beyond it. The speaker expresses a long-held frustration with words and the physical self, calling them “fetters and drags on immensities”, as if both language and the body have constrained the vast, unspoken truths they hold within.
The poem marks a turning point: a rejection of speech as a sufficient or trustworthy means of expression. Instead, the speaker embraces silence, discovering that in stillness and wordlessness, deeper meanings begin to “grow plain.” What once felt buried or inexpressible now finds form, not through articulation, but through presence and inner resonance.
Yet the poem also leaves room for subtle, inner expression – “something still may sing like a joyous flute” – suggesting that some aspects of the self may still voice themselves, but no longer through conventional speech. In silence, the “eloquent-mute” rises, and what once seemed incommunicable becomes understood in a deeper, more essential way.
Ultimately, “Silence” is about transcending the confines of words to access a purer form of truth: one that lives beyond language, and that speaks more fully in its quiet.
