Records and Other Poems By the late Robert Leighton |
 |
|
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
| XVII. |
| XVIII. |
| XIX. |
| XX. |
| XXI. |
| XXII. |
| XXIII. |
| XXIV. |
| XXV. |
|
SLEEP AND DEATH. |
|
|
 | Records and Other Poems |  |
167
SLEEP AND DEATH.
Brain-toss'd for sleep, the more that I entreat,
The balmy miracle forsakes my bed.
If sleep, so like to death, be thus so sweet,
How blessed to be dead!
The balmy miracle forsakes my bed.
If sleep, so like to death, be thus so sweet,
How blessed to be dead!
This wakefulness is madness; and to sleep
Were passing into sanity. What though
I never woke again? From rest so deep
I should not seek to go.
Were passing into sanity. What though
I never woke again? From rest so deep
I should not seek to go.
For death is but a deeper sleep. We seem
From all this conscious being to be riven,
Yet have escaped into the glorious dream
Of everlasting Heaven.
From all this conscious being to be riven,
Yet have escaped into the glorious dream
Of everlasting Heaven.
And think not that a dream is absent fact,
Its life less true than waking. Is there one
Who has not risen from a dreamèd act
Sorry or glad 'twas done?
Its life less true than waking. Is there one
Who has not risen from a dreamèd act
Sorry or glad 'twas done?
Be it of grief or joy, it is as much
A verity as this our waking strife;
And, howsoever named, my thought is, such
Will be eternal life.
A verity as this our waking strife;
And, howsoever named, my thought is, such
Will be eternal life.
What! With the incongruities of dreams?
Even so. This life which we so real deem—
To him who is not fully in it, seems
As mad as any dream!
Even so. This life which we so real deem—
To him who is not fully in it, seems
As mad as any dream!
| Records and Other Poems | |