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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SLEEP by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE

Poet Analysis

First Line: MEN ALL, AND BIRDS, AND CREEPING BEASTS
Last Line: THAT BURGEONS OUT OF NIGHT.
Subject(s): SLEEP;

Men all, and birds, and creeping beasts,
When the dark of night is deep,
From the moving wonder of their lives
Commit themselves to sleep.

Without a thought, or fear, they shut
The narrow gates of sense;
Heedless and quiet, in slumber turn
Their strength to impotence.

The transient strangeness of the earth
Their spirits no more see:
Within a silent gloom withdrawn,
They slumber in secrecy.

Two worlds they have -- a globe forgot,
Wheeling from dark to light;
And all the enchanted realm of dream
That burgeons out of night.



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