Sleep

A poem by Violet Nicolson, Lawrence Hope, Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (1865 – 1904)

There is something so beseeching in the attitude of sleep,

A pathetic resignation, most appealing to the heart. .

There must surely be some secret that the eyes in slumber keep,

Which the lips, on their awakening, could not, if they would, impart.

See yon Slave from Sus, recumbent, with his ebon arms outspread

On the marigolds he crushes to a sheet of golden flowers,

How the mystery of dreaming lends a halo to his head,

And exalts him to a level never reached in waking hours.

In the form that lies impassive, while the sea-wind comes and goes

And uplifts his rags in pity, on its cool refreshing breath

There is something so prophetic of the Last and Great Repose:

Sleep has borrowed, in its quietude, the Dignity of Death.

Though his parted lips are wordless, though he breathes no uttered prayer

Yet his silence seems imploring “Let me deem the noonday night,

For my dreams are velvet-breasted, and they shelter me from care,

I entreat thee not to wake me to the sorrows of the light.”

Ah, sleep on, in peace, my brother, to awaken when thou wi1t,

From the dreams that treat thee kindly, and the rest that sets thee free.

With the wild fig for thy canopy, the marigolds thy quilt,

And, to serve thee for a lullaby, the thunder of the Sea’

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Poems in English 

• The Bell Buoy by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Ballad of the Red Earl by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Ballad of the King’s Mercy by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Ballad of the King’s Jest by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Ballad of Fisher’s Boarding-House by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Ballad of East and West by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Answer by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Tarrant Moss by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Sussex by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Study of an Elevation, In Indian Ink by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• South Africa by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Song of the Wise Children by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Song of the Red War-Boat by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Song of Diego Valdez by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Soldier an’ Sailor Too by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Snarleyow by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Sir Richard’s Song by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Shillin’ a Day by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Seven Watchmen by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Seal Lullaby by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling

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