Quiet as the Grave

 Quiet as the grave that holds me fast

When death has dumbed the drumbeat of my blood,

Beneath the soundless soil, still at last,

I'll sink in silence to the muffling blood--

   But until then, I'll clatter through the halls

And shout hello to friends and wail goodbye;

I'll laugh aloud within the staidest walls 

And shriek my anger to the somber sky--

   The dead are not notorious for their noise

And I will lie a long time quietly,

So until then I'll use my loudest voice

To make the whimpering world resound of me

    And when at last I'm muted by the all-absorbing ground    

   And my unaccustomed silence then will deafen you with sound!