Substitution by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

WHEN some beloved voice that was to you <br />Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly, <br />And silence, against which you dare not cry, <br />Aches round you like a strong disease and new-- <br />What hope ? what help ? what music will undo <br />That silence to your sense ? Not friendship's sigh, <br />Not reason's subtle count; not melody <br />Of viols, nor of pipes that Faunus blew; <br />Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales <br />Whose hearts leap upward through the cypress-trees <br />To the clear moon; nor yet the spheric laws <br />Self-chanted, nor the angels' sweet ' All hails,' <br />Met in the smile of God: nay, none of these. <br />Speak THOU, availing Christ !--and fill this pause.<br /><br />Elizabeth Barrett Browning<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/substitution/