Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SLEEP AND DEATH, by JOHN GODFREY SAXE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SLEEP AND DEATH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Two wandering angels, sleep and death
Last Line: "remembers thee with gladness!"
Variant Title(s): The Two Angels; An Allegory
Subject(s): Death; Sleep; Dead, The


Two wandering angels, Sleep and Death,
Once met in sunny weather:
And while the twain were taking breath,
They held discourse together.

Quoth Sleep (whose face, though twice as fair,
Was strangely like the other's, --
So like, in sooth, that anywhere
They might have passed for brothers):

"A busy life is mine, I trow;
Would I were omnipresent!
So fast and far have I to go;
And yet my work is pleasant.

"I cast my potent poppies forth,
And lo! -- the cares that cumber
The toiling, suffering sons of Earth
Are drowned in sweetest slumber.

"The student rests his weary brain,
And waits the fresher morrow;
I ease the patient of his pain,
The mourner of his sorrow.

"I bar the gates where cares abide,
And open Pleasure's portals
To visioned joys; thus, far and wide,
I earn the praise of mortals."

"Alas!" replied the other, "mine
Is not a task so grateful;
Howe'er to mercy I incline,
To mortals I am hateful.

"They call me 'Kill-joy,' every one,
And speak in sharp detraction
Of all I do; yet have I done
Full many a kindly action."

"True!" answered Sleep, "but all the while
Thine office is berated,
'T is only by the weak and vile
That thou art feared and hated.

"And though thy work on earth has given
To all a shade of sadness;
Consider -- every saint in heaven
Remembers thee with gladness!"





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