And Silence I Was Born

Robert E. Howard (January 22, 1906–June 11, 1936)

By rose and verdant valley

And silence I was born;

My brothers were the mountains,

The purple gods of morn.

My sisters were the whirlwinds

That broke the dreaming plains-

The earth is in my sinews,

The stars are in my veins!

For first upon the molten

White silver sands I lay,

And saw the ocean beckon

With eyes of burning spray.

And up along the mountain,

And down along the lea,

I heard my brothers singing,

The river and the tree.

And through the ocean’s thunder,

And through the forest’s hush,

I heard my sisters calling,

The sea-wind and the thrush.

And still all living voices

Leap forth amain and far,

The sunset and the shadow,

The eagle and the star.

From caverns of the ocean

To highest mountain tree,

I hear all voices singing

Their kinship unto me.