As Ann came in one summer's day, She felt that she must creep, So silent was the clear cool house, It seemed a house of sleep. And sure, when she pushed open the door, Rapt in the stillness there, Her mother sat, with stooping head, Asleep upon a chair; Fast -- fast asleep; her two hands laid Loose-folded on her knee, So that her small unconscious face Looked half unreal to be: So calmly lit with sleep's pale light Each feature was; so fair Her forehead -- every trouble was Smoothed out beneath her hair. But though her mind in dream now moved, Still seemed her gaze to rest -- From out beneath her fast-sealed lids, Above her moving breast -- On Ann; as quite, quite still she stood; Yet slumber lay so deep Even her hands upon her lap Seemed saturate with sleep. And as Ann peeped, a cloudlike dread Stole over her, and then, On stealthy, mouselike feet she trod, And tiptoed out again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NIGHT AND DAY: 3 by ISAAC ROSENBERG INSCRIPTIONS: 1. FOR A GROTTO by MARK AKENSIDE ON A FAIR BEGGAR by PHILIP AYRES CONCORD HYMN; SUNG AT COMPLETION OF CONCORD MONUMENT, 1836 by RALPH WALDO EMERSON NATURAL HISTORY by MOTHER GOOSE LUCASIA, ROSANIA, AND ORINDA PARTING AT A FOUNTAIN by KATHERINE PHILIPS |