To Sleep

Thou silent power, whose welcome swayCharms every anxious thought away;In whose divine oblivion drown'd,Sore pain and weary toil grow mild,Love is with kinder looks beguiled,And grief forgets her fondly cherish'd wound;Oh, whither hast thou flown, indulgent god?God of kind shadows and of healing dews,Whom dost thou touch with thy Lethaean rod?Around whose temples now thy opiate airs diffuse?

Lo, Midnight from her starry reignLooks awful down on earth and main.The tuneful birds lie hush'd in sleep,With all that crop the verdant food,With all that skim the crystal flood,Or haunt the caverns of the rocky steep.No rushing winds disturb the tufted bowers;No wakeful sound the moonlight valley knows,Save where the brook its liquid murmur pours,And lulls the waving scene to more profound repose.

Oh, let not me alone complain,Alone invoke thy power in vain!Descend, propitious, on my eyes;Not from the couch that bears a crown,Not from the courtly statesman's down,Nor where the miser and his treasure lies:Bring not the shapes that break the murderer's rest,Nor those the hireling soldier loves to see,Nor those which haunt the bigot's gloomy breast:Far be their guilty nights, and far their dreams from me!

Nor yet those awful forms present,For chiefs and heroes only meant:The figured brass, the choral song,The rescued people's glad applause,The listening senate, and the lawsFix'd by the counsels of Timoleon's tongue,Are scenes too grand for fortune's private ways;And though they shine in youth's ingenuous view,The sober gainful arts of modern daysTo such romantic thoughts have bid a long adieu.

I ask not, god of dreams, thy careTo banish Love's presentments fair:Nor rosy cheek nor radiant eyeCan arm him with such strong commandThat the young sorcerer's fatal handShould round my soul his pleasing fetters tie.Nor yet the courtier's hope, the giving smile(A lighter phantom, and a baser chain)Did e'er in slumber my proud lyre beguileTo lend the pomp of thrones her ill-according strain.

But, Morpheus, on thy balmy wingSuch honourable visions bring,As soothed great Milton's injured age,When in prophetic dreams he sawThe race unborn with pious aweImbibe each virtue from his heavenly page:Or such as Mead's benignant fancy knowsWhen health's deep treasures, by his art explored,Have saved the infant from an orphan's woes,Or to the trembling sire his age's hope restored.