It little profits that, an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with...
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All ye who have gained the haven of safe days,
And rest at ease, your wanderings being done,
Except the last, inevitable one,
Be well content, I say, and hear men’s praise:
Yet in the quiet of your sheltered bays,—
Bland waters shining in an equal sun,—
Forget not that the awful storm-tides run
In far, unsheltered, and tempestuous... -
Would I were lying in a field of clover,
Of clover cool and soft, and soft and sweet,
With dusky clouds on deep skies hanging over,
And scented silence at my head and feet.Just for one hour to slip the leash of Worry,
In eager haste, from Thought’s impatient neck,
And watch it coursing, in its heedless hurry
Disdaining Wisdom’s... -
“WHY, when the world’s great mind
Hath finally inclined,
Why,” you say, Critias, “be debating still?
Why, with these mournful rhymes
Learned in more languid climes,
Blame our activity
Who, with such passionate will,
Are what we mean to be?”Critias, long since, I know
(For Fate decreed... -
TO spend the long warm days
Silent beside the silent-stealing streams,
To see, not gaze,—
To hear, not listen, thoughts exchanged for dreams:See clouds that slowly pass
Trailing their shadows o’er the far faint down,
And ripening grass,
While yet the meadows wear their starry crown:To hear the...
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From “Valentinian”
COME, Sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving
Lock me in delight awhile;
Let some pleasing dreams beguile
All my fancies, that from thence
I may feel an influence,
All my powers of care bereaving!Though but a shadow, but a sliding,
Let me know some little joy!
We that suffer long... -
Come, gentle sleep! attend thy votary’s prayer,
And, though death’s image, to my couch repair;
How sweet, though lifeless, yet with life to lie,
And, without dying, O how sweet to die! -
From “Astrophel and Stella”
COME, Sleep, O Sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release,
The indifferent judge between the high and low,
With shield of proof shield me from out the prease 1
Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw;
O, make me in those civil... -
From “Second Part of Henry IV.,” Act III. Sc. 1.
KING HENRY.—How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep!—O sleep! O gentle sleep!
Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy... -
A Flock of sheep that leisurely pass by
One after one; the sound of rain, and bees
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,
Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky;—
I ’ve thought of all by turns, and still I lie
Sleepless; and soon the small birds’ melodies
Must hear, first uttered from my orchard trees,
And the first...