Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SLEEP, by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SLEEP, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When to soft sleep we give ourselves away
Last Line: How will it be when we shall sleep indeed?
Subject(s): Sleep


WHEN to soft sleep we give ourselves away,
And in a dream as in a fairy bark
Drift on and on through the enchanted dark
To purple daybreak -- little thought we pay
To that sweet bitter world we know by day.
We are clean quit of it, as is a lark
So high in heaven no human eye can mark
The thin swift pinion cleaving through the gray.
Till we awake ill fate can do no ill,
The resting heart shall not take up again
The heavy load that yet must make it bleed;
For this brief space the loud world's voice is still,
No faintest echo of it brings us pain.
How will it be when we shall sleep indeed?





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