Author Information
Sleep Not
Folder:
fave poems (written by others) LXVIII
SLEEP not, dream not ; this bright day
Will not, cannot last for aye ;
Bliss like thine is bought by years
Dark with torment and with tears.
Sweeter far than placid pleasure
Purer higher beyond measure
Yet, alas ! the sooner turning
Into hopeless, endless mourning.
I love thee, boy, for all divine,
All full of God thy features shine.
Darling enthusiast, holy child,
Too good for this world's warring wild ;
Too heavenly now, but doomed to be,
Hell-like in heart and misery.
And what shall change that angel brow,
And quench that spirit's glorious glow?
Relentless laws that disallow
True virtue and true joy below.
I too depart, I too decline,
And make thy path no longer mine.
'Tis thus that human minds will turn,
All doomed alike to sin and mourn ;
Yet all with long gaze fixed afar,
Adoring virtue's distant star.
