To Sit In Solemn Silence...

W S Gilbert

  To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
  In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
  Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
  From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!

Commentary

(from The Mikado)

Note: This fragment appears at the end of a longer song1, in which various

people explain why they will not trade places with a condemned man; after various different lead-ins (“I must decline…” “I don’t much care…” “So I object…”) they sing the above piece in chorus.

Paralleling the enormous popularity of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a number of the songs have achieved an almost independent prominence; notable examples being the Captain’s song from HMS Pinafore and the Major General’s song from The Pirates of Penzance.

Slightly less famous, but no less noteworthy are some of the smaller, less standalone fragments embedded like gems within larger pieces. Although they require a bit of context to fully appreciate, they often show Gilbert at his very best; not a word out of place, not a break in the rhythm, and lyrics that stick in one’s memory (though it’s admittedly hard to see how this distinguishes them from anything else he wrote).

The above piece is one of my two favourite fragments (the other being the ‘Now is not this ridiculous’ chorus from Patience); it also has a special place in my affection as being the first piece of G&S I ever read. I came across it unattributed, and long before I knew who either Gilbert or Sullivan were anyway, but fell in love with it; it remains the finest piece of alliterative patter verse I have yet encountered2. (It was also a pleasant experience discovering who had written it, and being able to put a tune to the words).

And of course no Mikado commentary would be complete without my urging you to listen, if at all possible, to what is undoubtedly the best work Gilbert and Sullivan have produced - the lyrics are great, but the music adds a whole new dimension.

For random Gilbert and Sullivan info, including a biography and links, see the previous pieces in the archive
The Wondering Minstrels.

— Martin

  1. Whole text at http://diamond.idbsu.edu/gas/mikado/libretto.txt ↩

  2. possibly excepting Swinburne’s ‘Nephelidia’, poem #99, though ‘To Sit In Solemn Silence’ has the advantage of being shorter and therefore better able to maintain consistency. ↩

The Wondering Minstrels, poem #247 · 28 October 1999

Poem selected by Martin DeMello

Fair use

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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.

Penney Mark · 27 April 2005

I first encountered “To Sit in Solemn Silence” as a diction warm-up before stage performances (of all kinds, not just of G&S operettas). It’s great for that purpose because it’s although it’s high-energy and rapid-paced, you have to be on your toes to recite it without garbling it or eliding the consonants. Also it’s easily memorized.

Curry Caroline · 13 November 2005

I was introduced to Sit in Solemn Silence on my speech team as a diction warm-up, but also in my school’s theater productions. We do a cast warm-up called “Green Room” that brings us all together. And when we do this, we clasp hands and stand in a circle, and step back and forth in and out of the circle while swinging our hands in and out as well. It’s so amazing, because the rhythm at which we walk matches that of the poem, and by the end you’ve speeded up and it reminds you of soldiers marching to the execution site or something. It’s an amazing sensation.