Songs Without Words

Songs Without Words is a brief, resonant poem from the American humor tradition, written by Robert Jones Burdette, a clergyman who happened to be one of the funniest men in Iowa. The title itself is the whole argument: some feelings are too big for language, too tender for talk. What remains is the music beneath the words, the silence that speaks louder than any sentence. Burdette, who spent his days writing paragraphs for the Burlington Hawkeye and preaching on Sundays, understood both the power of a well-timed joke and the weight of what cannot be joked about. This poem sits in that sacred in-between space, where humor gives way to something quieter and truer. It comes from The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VII, a collection that aimed to capture the particular genius of American voice: rough, warm, unsentimental, and occasionally soaring into something like grace.