SLEEP! all who toil; No longer creaks the harvest wain, For sleeping lies the harvest day, Asleep the winding leafy lane Where none's afoot to miss his way. Sleep! village street, You've stared too long upon the sun; Now turn you to the gentle moon. Sleep, windows! for your work is done, Tomorrow's light will come too soon! Sleep! Sleep! the heat Is over in the darkened home. A night-jar's spinning in the brake, And -- hark! -- the floating owls have come To try and keep the hours awake. Sleep! honey hives! And swallow's flight, and thrushes' call! Sleep, tongues, a little, while you may, And let night's cool oblivion fall On all the gossip of the day. Sleep! men and wives, A sweetness of refreshment steal; The morning star can vigil keep; Too quickly turns the slumber wheel! -- And all you little children, sleep! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE POPLAR by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM AN ANCIENT PROVERB by WILLIAM BLAKE BEN KARSHOOK'S WISDOM by ROBERT BROWNING THE OLD MAN OF VERONA by CLAUDIAN LINES WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM AT ELBINGERODE, IN HARTZ FOREST by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE CHRISTMAS CAROL by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE REVENGE; A BALLAD OF THE FLEET by ALFRED TENNYSON |