Odes on Several Subjects/On Sleep
On SLEEP.
I.Why, gentle God, this long delay,Since Night, and careless Quiet reigns?Oh hither take thy silent way,And sooth, ah sooth my wakeful pains!So shall my hands for thee the wreath entwine,And strew fresh Poppies at thy votive shrine.
II.When from the North all wan, and pale,The sun withdraws his chearful light,And arm'd with whirlwind, frost, and hail,The big clouds bring the half year's night,Quick to their caves the shiv'ring Natives tend,And hear without the ratt'ling storms descend.
III.Then stretcht along the shaggy bedTo Thee, indulgent Pow'r, they cry;Born on thy wings, with happier speed,The leaden-footed Moments fly;While Fancy paints spring's visionary stores,And calls the distant Sun to wake the slumb'ring flow'rs.
IV.Nor yet is Sleep's supreme commandConfin'd to these cold dreary plains,O'er sultry Lybia's boiling sandThis universal Monarch reigns;And where with heat the sable Indians glow,While streams of light thro' purest Æther flow.
V.Weary and faint the dusky slavesFrom cold Potosi's mines retire,From rugged rocks, and darkling caves,When scarce the panting lungs respire:To Citron shades they take their pensive way,Where bath'd in od'rous winds their listless limbs they lay.
VI.The Tyrant's voice, the galling chain,Th' uplifted scourge no more they fear,Deep slumbers drown the sense of pain;And floating thro' the peopled airIdeal Forms in pleasing order rise,And bright illusions swim before their eyes.
VII.Now Orellana's foaming tideWith pliant arms they seem to cleave; And now the light canoe to guideAcross Muenca's glassy wave;Or chase in jocund troops the savage Prey,Thro' woods impervious to the solar ray.
VIII.Some gentle Youth, by Love betray'd,Recalls the joys he felt of old,When wand'ring with his sable MaidThro' groves of vegetable gold,He claspt her yielding to his raptur'd breast,And free from guile his honest soul exprest.
IX.Sleep on, much-injur'd hapless swain,Nor wake thy cruel fate to moan,To curse th' insatiate thirst of gain,And proud Iberia's [1]bloody son!Old India's Genius wept o'er Millions slain,And streams of gore ran foaming to the main.
X.But why to tragic scenes like these, Wilt thou, my restless Fancy, rove? Bear me to climes of downy ease,To climes that Sleep, and Silence love:Whether the shades of Lemnos most invite,Or dark Cimmerian caves the still abode of Night.
XI.Fond Fables all!—The partial GodIs flown to Belgia's drowzy plains,There waves his Lethe-sprinkled rod,And linkt with kindred Dulness reigns:Midst stagnant pools, the Bittern's safe retreat,Beset with osiers dank behold his gloomy seat!
XII.His dwelling is a straw-built Shed,Safe from the Sun's too curious eye,A Yew-tree rears it's blighted head,And Frogs and Rooks are croaking nigh:Thro' many a chink the hollow murm'ring breezeSounds like the distant hum of swarming bees.
XIII.And more to feed his Slumbers soft,And lull him in his senseless swoon,The hard rain beats upon the loft,And swiftly-trickling tumbles down: All livelier, ruder sounds are banisht far,The Lute's shrill voice, and brazen throat of War.
XIV.Hence let me woo thee, God of ease,Ah leave thy fav'rite Haunt awhile,And bid the midnight hours to please,And bid the midnight gloom to smile!Oh come, and o'er my weary limbs diffuseThe slumbrous weight of sweet oblivious dews!
XV.Bring too thy soft, enchanting Dreams,Such as enamour'd Petrarch knew,When stretcht by Sorgia's gentle streamsFair Laura's form his Fancy drew:Oh see he woos the Soul-dissolving Maid,And grasps with eager arms the visionary shade.
XVI.At Morn he sung the tender tale,He sung his Laura's matchless charms,And ev'ry tree, in Clausa's vale,Attentive breath'd Love's soft Alarms;Ev'n hoary Monks full many a careless BeadHave dropt, and left their Aves half unsaid.
- ↑ Hernando Cortez. See the History of the Conquest of Mexico and Peru by the Spaniards.