Excerpt
I.
Peace, peace, thou over-anxious, foolish heart,Rest, ever-seeking soul, calm, mad desires,Quiet, wild dreams—this is the time of sleep.Hold her more close than life itself. ForgetAll the excitements of the day, forgetAll problems and discomforts. Let the nightTake you unto herself, her blessed self.Peace, peace, thou over-anxious, foolish heart,Rest, ever-seeking soul, calm, mad desires,Quiet, wild dreams—this is the time of sleep.Leolyn Louise Everett.
II.
Sleep, softly-breathing god! his downy wingWas fluttering now.Samuel T. Coleridge.I lay in slumber's shadowy valeSamuel T. Coleridge.
III.
And more to lulle him in his slumber soft,A trickling stream from high rock tumbling downAnd ever-drizzling raine upon the loft,Mixt with a murmuring winde, much like the sowneOf swarming Bees, did cast him in a swowne.No other noyse, nor peoples troublous cryes,As still are wont t'annoy the walled towne,Might there be heard; but carelesse Quiet lyesWrapt in eternal! silence farre from enimyes.Edmund Spenser.
IV.
The waters murmuring,With such cohort as they keepEntice the dewy-feathered Sleep.Il Penseroso.John Milton.
V.
Ye spotted snakes with double tongue,Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;Newts and blind-worms do no wrong,Come not near our fairy queen.Philomel, with melodySing in our sweet lullaby,Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby;Never harm.Nor spell nor charm,Come our lovely lady nighSo goodnight with lullaby.William Shakespeare.
VI.
Sleep, Silence child, sweet father of soft rest,Prince, whose approach peace to all mortals brings,Indifferent host to shepherds and to kings,Sole comforter of minds with grief oppressed;Lo, by thy charming rod all breathing thingsLie slumbering, with forgetfulness possessed.William Drummond of Hawthornden.
VII.
Come, Sleep, and with thy sweet deceivingLock me in delight awhile;Let some pleasing dreams beguileAll my fancies; that from thenceI may feel an influence,All my powers of care bereaving!Though but a shadow, but a slidingLet me know some little joy!We that suffer long annoyAre contented with a thoughtThrough an idle fancy wrought;O let my joys have some abiding!John Fletcher.
VIII.
But still let Silence trew night-watches keepe,That sacred Peace may in assurance rayne,And tymely Sleep, when it is time to sleep,May pour his limbs forth on your pleasant playne;The whiles an hundred little winged lovesLike divers-fethered doves,Shall fly and flutter round about your bed.Edmund Spenser.
IX.
Care-charming Sleep, thou easer of all woes,Brother to Death, sweetly thyself disposeOn this afflicted prince; fall like a cloudIn gentle showers; give nothing that is loudOr painful to his slumbers,—easy, sweetAnd as a purling stream, thou son of Night,Pass by his troubled senses; sing his painLike hollow murmuring wind or silver rain,Into this prince gently, oh gently, slideAnd kiss him into slumbers like a bride.John Fletcher.
X.
God hath setLabor and rest, as day and night, to menSuccessive, and the timely dew of sleepNow falling with soft, slumberous weight inclinesOur eyelids.John Milton.
XI.
Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast'Would I were sleep and peace so sweet to restWilliam Shakespeare.The innocent sleep,Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, tThe death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,Chief nourisher in life's feast....