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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=416833" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Quiet Lodger</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The man that rooms next door to me:<br>Two weeks ago, this very night,<br>He took possession quietly,<br>As any other lodger might--<br>But why the room next mine should so<br>Attract him I was vexed to know,--<br>Because his quietude, in fine,<br>Was far superior to mine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Now, I like quiet, truth to tell,<br>A tranquil life is sweet to me--<br>But _this_,' I sneered, 'suits me too well.--<br>He shuts his door so noiselessly,<br>And glides about so very mute,<br>In each mysterious pursuit,<br>His silence is oppressive, and<br>Too deep for me to understand.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Sometimes, forgetting book or pen,<br>I've found my head in breathless poise<br>Lifted, and dropped in shame again,<br>Hearing some alien ghost of noise--<br>Some smothered sound that seemed to be<br>A trunk-lid dropped unguardedly,<br>Or the crisp writhings of some quire<br>Of manuscript thrust in the fire.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then I have climbed, and closed in vain<br>My transom, opening in the hall;<br>Or close against the window-pane<br>Have pressed my fevered face,--but all<br>The day or night without held not<br>A sight or sound or counter-thought<br>To set my mind one instant free<br>Of this man's silent mastery.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And often I have paced the floor<br>With muttering anger, far at night,<br>Hearing, and cursing, o'er and o'er,<br>The muffled noises, and the light<br>And tireless movements of this guest<br>Whose silence raged above my rest<br>Hoarser than howling storms at sea--<br>The man that rooms next door to me.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But twice or thrice, upon the stair,<br>I've seen his face--most strangely wan,--<br>Each time upon me unaware<br>He came--smooth'd past me, and was gone.<br>So like a whisper he went by,<br>I listened after, ear and eye,<br>Nor could my chafing fancy tell<br>The meaning of one syllable.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Last night I caught him, face to face,--<br>He entering his room, and I<br>Glaring from mine: He paused a space<br>And met my scowl all shrinkingly,<br>But with full gentleness: The key<br>Turned in his door--and I could see<br>It tremblingly withdrawn and put<br>Inside, and then--the door was shut.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then silence. _Silence_!--why, last night<br>The silence was tumultuous,<br>And thundered on till broad daylight;--<br>O never has it stunned me thus!--<br>It rolls, and moans, and mumbles yet.--<br>Ah, God! how loud may silence get<br>When man mocks at a brother man<br>Who answers but as silence can!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The silence grew, and grew, and grew,<br>Till at high noon to-day 'twas heard<br>Throughout the house; and men flocked through<br>The echoing halls, with faces blurred<br>With pallor, gloom, and fear, and awe,<br>And shuddering at what they saw--<br>The quiet lodger, as he lay<br>Stark of the life he cast away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">* * * * *</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So strange to-night--those voices there,<br>Where all so quiet was before;<br>They say the face has not a care<br>Nor sorrow in it any more--<br>His latest scrawl:--'Forgive me--You<br>Who prayed, 'they know not what they do!''<br>My tears wilt never let me see<br>This man that rooms next door to me!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=James+Whitcomb+Riley">James Whitcomb Riley</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=416833" data-title="The Quiet Lodger de James Whitcomb Riley" data-description="The man that rooms next door to me:
Two weeks ago, this very night,
He took possession quietly,
As any other lodger might--
But why the room next mine should so
Attract him I was vexed to know,--
Because his quietude, in fine,
Was far superior to ..."></div>
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