on the inner surface of elsewhere drawn with letters

It would be curious—
amid calibrated darkness—
to know in which expectant mouth
crowded silence alights.

On the whole, there seems to be a system.
In all cases of joint interest,
the most absorbed is humble,
clad for better concealment,
singing distance and dissonance serenely.

Placid secrecy seals its disposition
in figuring or describing
the instinct of pallid cleanliness.

Forgotten circumstances of observation,
this denouement impossible to relate,
only pay assiduous address
to the sitting laggard,
who surmounts all ordinary difficulties.

Consolation may leave one inconsolable.
Astonishment leaves one pivot poised and silent.

 

Sourced from: John Burroughs’s short story: “Birds’-Nests” (1866). http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/21300