Silentium Amoris

Silentium Amoris

By Oscar Wilde

 

AS oftentimes the too resplendent sun 

   Hurries the pallid and reluctant moon 

Back to her sombre cave, ere she hath won 

   A single ballad from the nightingale, 

   So doth thy Beauty make my lips to fail, 

And all my sweetest singing out of tune. 

 

And as at dawn across the level mead 

   On wings impetuous some wind will come, 

And with its too harsh kisses break the reed 

   Which was its only instrument of song, 

   So my too stormy passions work me wrong, 

And for excess of Love my Love is dumb. 

 

But surely unto Thee mine eyes did show 

   Why I am silent, and my lute unstrung; 

Else it were better we should part, and go, 

   Thou to some lips of sweeter melody, 

   And I to nurse the barren memory 

Of unkissed kisses, and songs never sung.

 

 

About the Poem

 

“Silentium Amoris” is Latin for “The Silence of Love,” a suiting title for the love of nature and the nature of love, but also the unsaid love. It also pairs well with the other Latin titles from The Fourth Movement, all which center around the theme of love and its beauty and costs.

 

“Silentium Amoris” is heartfelt and simply beautiful. Wilde is the voice of a lover who is confessing to the one he loves. (A quick note: some who have analyzed the poem refer to the love as that of a woman, but as most of you probably know, it is most likely another man that he writes this poem about. After, the title says it is the silence of love, and Wilde was famous for his quote from his trial for being homosexual describing his sexuality as “the love that dare not speak its name.”) He wishes to sing to his love whose beauty is enough to make him dumb. He finds he cannot sing the songs that he could sing so sweetly, and he notices he cannot even speak, “his lips fail him.”

 

However, he tells his love that he must have understood by looking into his eyes, the reason for his silence and his “unstrung lute.” If he didn’t, he would rather part ways with him for that would mean he could not read his eyes and judge how speechless his presence made him.

 

His love could then go to some man who would not stammer or lose his words or his tune while singing to him while he would nurse the memory he had of his love, dreaming of “unkissed kisses.”

 

This poem portrays two very strong emotions- love and self-respect. Although he loves this man, he would rather he left to be with another man than stay with Wilde if he did not reciprocate.

 

About the Poet

 

Oscar Wilde was an Anglo-Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of the Victorian Era. In his lifetime he wrote nine plays, one novel, and numerous poems, short stories, and essays.

 

Wilde was a proponent of the Aesthetic movement, which emphasized aesthetic values more than moral or social themes. This doctrine is most clearly summarized in the phrase “art for art's sake.”

 

Besides literary accomplishments, he is also famous, or perhaps infamous, for his wit, flamboyance, and affairs with men. He was tried and imprisoned for his homosexual relationship (then considered a crime) with the son of an aristocrat.

 

In 1891, Wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed “Bosie,” who became both the love of his life and his downfall. Wilde had been married, but the marriage ended in 1893.

 

In April 1895, Oscar sued Bosie's father for libel as the Marquis of Queensberry had accused him of homosexuality. Oscar's case was unsuccessful, and he was himself arrested and tried for gross indecency. He was sentenced to two years of hard labor for the crime of sodomy. During his time in prison he wrote De Profundis, a dramatic monologue and autobiography, which was addressed to Bosie.

 

Upon his release in 1897, he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, revealing his concern for inhumane prison conditions. He spent the rest of his life wandering Europe, staying with friends and living in cheap hotels. He died of cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900, penniless, in a cheap Paris hotel.