All my world has suddenly gone quiet
Like a railway carriage as it draws into a station;
Conversation fails, laughter dies,
And the turning of the pages and the striking of matches cease.
All life is lapsed into nervous consciousness,
Frozen, like blades of grass in blocks of ice,
Except where one small persistent voice in the corner
Compares with the questioning silence –
With the situation of an electric present
My self-opinions, pride and confidence of an untried past.