Milky quietude sounds like something to be welcomed, whereas a curdling whey of silence is to be escaped.  I like this double latte metaphor, turning over two sides of quietness.

‘A milky quietude ensued.  The whey of silence curdled.’

Source: Osip Mandelstam, Journey to Armenia (London: Notting Hill Editions, 2011), p. 97

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