Thoughts do not need the wings of words to fly to any goal, Like subtle lightnings, not like birds, They speed from soul to soul.

Wilcox contrasts spoken language with the immediacy of inner life. The lines suggest that thought—especially feeling, intention, or sympathy—can travel without verbal expression, reaching others with the suddenness of “subtle lightnings.” In this view, minds and hearts are porous: we register one another’s moods and meanings through presence, intuition, and shared emotional currents, not only through speech. The image also elevates thought as swift and immaterial, less like a physical creature that must traverse space (“birds”) and more like a flash that leaps across distance. The passage fits Wilcox’s broader interest in mental influence and the moral responsibility of one’s inner states.