---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Stewart, Lewis
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 3
number: 2
published: 1899-12
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Stewart, Lewis, "In the Stillness, a Poem," *Improvement Era* 3, no. 2 (December 1899): 95–96.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera32unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera32unse
start_page: 95
end_page: 96
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-12)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera32unse
  publication_year: 1899
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# In the Stillness, a Poem

<!-- page:95 -->

IN THE STILLNESS.

       BY LEWIS STEWART.

Silent now the voice of gladness,
  Song of bird and hum of bee;
And a feeling, tinged with sadness,
  As I gaze across the lea,
Steals upon me from the mem'ries
  Shrined in caskets from the vast.
Silent, sacred, holy chambers
  In the temples of the past.

Now the wish, the fret, the worry
  Of a heart scarce yet controll'd,
Are all bound and cold and silent
  As these forms, in shrouds enroU'd;
Forms of shrubs and trees, so ghost-like,
  In the dull, gray dawning light.
Standing there, themselves their tombstones.
  Marble cold and deadly white.

Sad, I listen in the stillness
  For a voice, so sweet, so dear;
Voice of music, voice of angel
  That enchants the spirit's ear:
Tones of love so gently spoken,
  Melodies so heavenly rare,
That no mortal ever hears them.
  Save as echoes of his prayer.

Now the heav'n-born presence thrills me;
  Rings the message sweet and clear:

<!-- page:96 -->

96                 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

              "Tell thy friends, thy fellow mortals,
                With a smile and with a tear.
              He that died for man hath risen;
                He that wept is conq'ror now.
              Rise and free the soul from prison;
                Look not backward from the plow.

              "Tell the children, fair, the story;
                Warn the maiden and the youth;
              Shout the tidings from the hill-tops,
                Dare not hide the light of truth.
              Christ, the holy, fills the child-heart;
                Christ, the peerless, wins the brave.
             In the brightness of his coming.
                Fall the fetters from the slave."

             Where are now the shrouds so deathlike?
                Nature only sleeps awhile;
             And the mantling snows of winter
                Glisten in the sun's bright smile.
             Gone are all the weary fancies;
               Gone the sadness 'kin to pain.
             Snows of winter, graven tombstones,
               To the earth and man are gain.

     Lake View, Utah.