How lovely is the heaven of this night, How deadly still its earth. The forest brute Has crept into his cave, and laid himself Where sleep has made him harmless like the lamb; The horrid snake, his venom now forgot, Is still and innocent as the honied flower Under his head: -- and man, in whom are met Leopard and snake, -- and all the gentleness And beauty of the young lamb and the bud, Has let his ghost out, put his thoughts aside And lent his senses unto death himself; Whereby the king and beggar all lie down On straw or purple-tissue, are but bones And air, and blood, equal to one another And to the unborn and buried; so we go Placing ourselves among the unconceived And the old ghosts, wantonly, smilingly, For sleep is fair and warm. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DISASTER by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY OH! SUSANNA! by STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER WITCH-WIFE by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY OUR STATE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE HANDSOME KNIGHT by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II EPISTLE TO DR. ENFIELD ON HIS REVISITING WARRINGTON IN 1789 by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD MARATHON, SELECTION by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES |