Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SLUMBER OF DEATH, by ELIZA COOK


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SLUMBER OF DEATH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Peaceful and fair is the smiling repose
Last Line: The sleep that is dreamless -- the sleep of the grave.
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


Peaceful and fair is the smiling repose
That the breast-cradled slumber of infancy knows;
Sound is the rest of the weary and worn,
Whose feet have been galled with the dust and the thorn;

Sweet is the sleep on the eyelids of youth
When they dream of the world as all pleasure and truth!
Yet child, pilgrim, and youth, snall awaken again
To the journeys of toil and the trials of pain.

But, oh! there's a fast and a visionless sleep,
The calm and the stirless, the long and the deep:
'Tis the sleep that is soundest and sweetest of all,
When our couch is the bier and our night robe the pall.

No voice of the foe or the friend shall impart
The proud flush to the cheek or warm throb to the heart:
The lips of the dearest may seek for the breath,
But their kiss cannot rouse the cold stillness of death.

'Tis a long, 'tis a last, 'tis a beautiful rest,
When all sorrow has passed from the brow and the breast,
And the lone spirit truly and wisely may crave
The sleep that is dreamless -- the sleep of the grave.





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