There was a deep silence, only scraped on its surfaces by the faint quiver of empty seed-plumes, and broken grass-blades trembling in small air-movements they could not feel.' Not a bird! ' said Sam mournfully.' No, no birds, ' said Gollum. 'Nice birds! ' He licked his teeth. 'No birds here. There are snakeses, wormses, things in the pools. Lots of things, lots of nasty things. No birds, ' he ended sadly. Sam looked at him with distaste. .J.r.r. Tolkien
About This Quote
Being a great poet, the most famous piece by William Wordsworth is The Prelude. In this poem, a few years after his famous poem about "Tintern Abbey," Wordsworth returns to the enchanting valley where he wrote his most famous poem. In the poem, Wordsworth describes how he has been led to a place near his former home where he will spend the evening with a friend. In the opening lines of The Prelude, Wordsworth describes how 'the air was filled with a peculiar stillness.' As he looks around him, he sees only silence and emptiness. 'Not a bird!' said Sam mournfully.'No, no birds,' said Gollum.'Nice birds!' He licked his teeth.
'No birds here...' But then something occurs to him which helps him feel less lonely: 'There are snakeses, wormses, things in the pools. Lots of things, lots of nasty things.' These animals are not making noise because they are afraid to make noise. They are afraid of catching attention from others and being killed.
The animals in these pools are living in fear, which is why they are so quiet. They live in fear of their lives and do not make any noise at all for fear of becoming an object of attention. Gollum's fear makes him angry because he feels like nobody can hear him when he speaks aloud; but when he speaks softly, no one can hear him either. He cannot get anyone's attention because all that happens when you speak loudly is that everyone around you hears you and every passer-by who hears you will also be frightened by your warning sound; but if you speak softly nobody will hear you at all since nobody is able to hear what you say unless they move right up close to your mouth to hear it directly.
So Gollum sinks down into himself so that no one can see him but can see only his eyes peering out from underneath his hood. This way Gollum knows that no one will hear what he says or be frightened by it but can still have someone listen to his voice in order to understand what it is that he is trying to tell them. When everyone around Gollum speaks loudly it scares Gollum even more than if everyone around him had been speaking quietly since it would have made no difference whether they were speaking quietly or loudly anyway - they would have heard just as well as if they had shouted at the top of their voices because everyone else would have heard them
Source: The Two Towers
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