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...AT KENNEBUNKPORT by LOUIS UNTERMEYER TO MY INCONSTANT MISTRESS by THOMAS CAREW CORRYMEELA by NESTA HIGGINSON SKRINE FRAGMENTS INTENDED FOR DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: LOVE IS WISER THAN AMBITION by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES PSALM 137: EXILE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE FESTUBERT SHRINE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN WASHINGTON by EVALYN TERRY BROOKS AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO EARNEST AND IMPORTUNATE PRAYER by JOHN BYROM |