The poems contained in this anthology have been selected for the unifying theme of silence. In each poem, the presence or absence of silence is an integral part of the subject or mood: influencing the language, imagery and mental dynamics of each piece. Many pieces focus on death or inner reflection, subjects that lend themselves to quiet language and activity. However, there is an extraordinary range of attitudes, images, language and tone towards these topics and their relationship to silence. These poems speak to the multifaceted nature of silence, demonstrating that it is much more than the simple absence of sound. It can be a state of being, a source of comfort, a cause of anxiety, a mental “space,” a feeling of faith, or a means of escape. This anthology highlights the range of human experience and perception through the variety and volume of what writers have to say about a concept as seemingly similar and muted as silence. The first poem in the anthology is “The Clouded Morning” by Jones Very. This poem creates silence through the interaction between tone and setting. The use of words like stillness, dull, deadened, subdued, and drowned all describe the muted sense of sound and movement in the poem. They come together to create the image of a very foggy morning, where the clouds are so thick that they form a blanket in the atmosphere, simulating night and calming even the "din of the city" and "the shrill, shrill voice of the rooster.” The speaker seems to enjoy the silence created by the scene. To describe the sounds that the mist muffles, the poem uses negative adjectives. The city is described as noisy, vaguely obnoxious, and chaotic. The rooster is described as shrill and piercing, claiming he is...... middle of paper ...... ally, the poem implies that the grandmother lived a more traditional lifestyle by dropping allusions such as "áo dài", a usual dress and that the grandmother was buried with her agricultural tools. Finally, the silence of the poem is broken by the thoughts that attract the speaker: those of the pain and suffering of the Vietnam War. The grandmother lost many members of her family to the violence of the war. The volume of pain is evoked through the graphic and intimate descriptions of this loss. Finally, the poem ends with a feeling that ultimately overcomes the silence. The speaker, returning to the grave, is able to reconnect with the grandmother through the resemblance to the speaker's mother and by "[lighting] the joss sticks (incense) and [planting] them." These ties between family and culture prevail over the silence created by the distance of death and time..