Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SLEEP NOT, DREAM NOT, by EMILY JANE BRONTE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SLEEP NOT, DREAM NOT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sleep not dream not this bright day
Last Line: Adoring virtue's distant star
Alternate Author Name(s): Bell, Ellis
Variant Title(s): "sleep Not Dream Not This Bright Day"";


Sleep not dream not this bright day
Will not cannot last for aye
Bliss like thine is bought by years
Dark with torment and with tears

Sweeter far than placid pleasure
Purer higher beyond measure
Yet alas the sooner turning
Into hopeless endless mourning

I love thee boy for all divine
All full of God thy features shine
Darling enthusiast holy child
Too good for this world's warring wild
Too heavenly now but doomed to be
Hell-like in heart and misery

And what shall change that angel brow
And quench that spirit's glorious glow
Relentless laws that disallow
True virtue and true joy below

And blame me not if when the dread
Of suffering clouds thy youthful head
If when by crime and sorrow tos[t]
Thy wandering bark is wrecked and los[t]

I too depart I too decline
And make thy path no longer mine
'Tis thus that human minds will turn
All doomed alike to sin and mourn
Yet all with long gaze fixed afar
Adoring virtue's distant star





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