Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE VOYAGE OF SLEEP, by ARTHUR WENTWORTH HAMILTON EATON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE VOYAGE OF SLEEP, by                    
First Line: To sleep I give myself away
Last Line: And drift into the silent west.
Subject(s): Rest; Sleep


To sleep I give myself away,
Unclasp the fetters of the mind,
Forget the sorrows of the day,
The burdens of the heart unbind.
With empty sail this tired bark
Drifts out upon the sea of rest,
While all the shore behind grows dark
And silence reigns from east to west.
At last awaked the hidden breeze
That bears me to the land of dreams,
Where music sighs among the trees
And murmurs in the winding streams.
O weary day, O weary day,
That dawns in fear and ends in strife,
That brings no cooling draught to allay
The burning fever thirst of life;
O sacred night, when angel hands
Are pressed upon the throbbing brow,
And when the soul on shining sands
Descends with angels from the prow,
And sees soft skies and meadows sweet,
And blossoming lanes that wind and wind
To bowers where friends long parted meet
And sit again with arms entwined,
And catch the perfumed breeze that blows
From pink-plumed orchards sloping fair
And every fresh-expanding rose
That throws sweet kisses to the air.
O sacred night, O silvery shore,
O blossoming lanes that wind and wind,
Ye are my refuge more and more
From ghosts that haunt the waking mind.
To sleep I give myself away,
Forget the visions of unrest
That came through all the clamorous day,
And drift into the silent west.




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