SLEEP! all who toil; No longer creaks the harvest wain, For sleeping lies the harvest day, Asleep the winding leafy lane Where none's afoot to miss his way. Sleep! village street, You've stared too long upon the sun; Now turn you to the gentle moon. Sleep, windows! for your work is done, Tomorrow's light will come too soon! Sleep! Sleep! the heat Is over in the darkened home. A night-jar's spinning in the brake, And -- hark! -- the floating owls have come To try and keep the hours awake. Sleep! honey hives! And swallow's flight, and thrushes' call! Sleep, tongues, a little, while you may, And let night's cool oblivion fall On all the gossip of the day. Sleep! men and wives, A sweetness of refreshment steal; The morning star can vigil keep; Too quickly turns the slumber wheel! -- And all you little children, sleep! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HARP by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE WILLIAM P. FRYE [FEBRUARY 28, 1915] by JEANNE ROBERT FOSTER SONNET: TO HOMER by JOHN KEATS MEMORY by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR LINES WRITTEN ON HEARING THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 84. DHU'L JADAL WA'L IKRAM by EDWIN ARNOLD |