Doodle #99. Silence

Doodle #99.
Doodle silence.

When our two souls stand up erect and strong,

Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,

Until the lengthening wings break into fire

At either curvéd point, — what bitter wrong

Can the earth do to us, that we should not long

Be here contented ? Think. In mounting higher,

The angels would press on us, and aspire

To drop some golden orb of perfect song

Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay

Rather on earth, Belovèd, — where the unfit

Contrarious moods of men recoil away

And isolate pure spirits, and permit

A place to stand and love in for a day,

With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet XXII

*****

Back to doodling. I gave myself permission to skip days–as long as I doodle on all 365 pages, I’m meeting my goal; I don’t have to fill the book in a calendar year or to doodle in order. In other words, I’m also back to eschewing perfectionism.

My image of silence comes from one of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. She imagines two lovers, their souls standing “erect and strong, / Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,” contented to be on earth. “Think,” she says.

In mounting higher,
The angels would press on us and aspire
To drop some golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep, dear silence.

The doodle is of song, not silence. Sometimes it’s easier to depict a thing as what it’s not instead of what it is.

That’s what Barrett Browning did.