Such Tenderness
There was such tenderness, Such restful tenderness, In those last words you spoke to me, That soothed, this restlessness’ Gave way and ceased to be.
Anna M. Johnson
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
There was such tenderness, Such restful tenderness, In those last words you spoke to me, That soothed, this restlessness’ Gave way and ceased to be.
Someone has spoken a few final words to the speaker, and those words were so gentle that they brought a rare calm. The poem is only five lines long, but it captures a feeling most people will recognize: an unsettled mind suddenly going still because of what another person said.
The repetition does much of the work. "Such tenderness" appears twice, and the second time it picks up the adjective "restful," as though the speaker keeps circling back to the memory and finding it more soothing each time. The sound of the lines helps too. The soft, hushed rhythm makes the poem feel like the very calm it describes, and the closing phrase "ceased to be" lets the restlessness fade out rather than end with a bang.
The word "last" gives the poem a quiet shadow. We aren't told why these were final words, and the poem doesn't say, but the mood is one of gratitude touched with loss.