SLEEP, Mr. Speaker; it's surely fair If you don't in your bed, that you should in your chair. Longer and longer still they grow, Tory and Radical, Aye and No: Talking by night, and talking by day;-- Sleep, Mr. Speaker; sleep, sleep while you may! Sleep, Mr. Speaker; slumber lies Light and brief on a Speaker's eyes: Fielden or Finn, in a minute or two, Some disorderly thing will do; Riot will chase repose away:-- Sleep, Mr. Speaker; sleep, sleep while you may! Sleep, Mr. Speaker; Cobbett will soon Move to abolish the sun and moon; Hume, no doubt, will be taking the sense Of the House on a saving of thirteen pence; Grattan will growl, or Baldwin bray;-- Sleep, Mr. Speaker; sleep, sleep while you may! Sleep, Mr. Speaker; dream of the time When loyalty was not quite a crime; When Grant was a pupil in Canning a school, When Palmerston fancied Wood a fool; Lord, how principles pass away! Sleep, Mr. Speaker; sleep, sleep while you may! Sleep, Mr. Speaker; sweet to men Is the sleep that cometh but now and then; Sweet to the sorrowful, sweet to the ill, Sweet to the children that work in a mill, You have more need of sleep than they;-- Sleep, Mr. Speaker; sleep, sleep while you may! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BITTER-SWEET: CRADLE SONG [OR, BABYHOOD] by JOSIAH GILBERT HOLLAND PRAYER OF A SOLDIER IN FRANCE by ALFRED JOYCE KILMER THE FLIGHT OF THE GODDESS by CELIA THAXTER RECOMPENSE by JESSE M. BALL ALLEN THE GHOSTS' MOONSHINE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES SORROW AND JOY by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS: BOOK 3. THE FIRST SONG by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |