To Sleep
To Sleep
Original Text
John Keats, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820). Facs. edn.: Scolar Press, 1970. PR 4830 E20AB Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
2 Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
3Our gloom-pleas'd eyes, embower'd from the light,
4 Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
5O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close
6 In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,
7Or wait the "Amen," ere thy poppy throws
8 Around my bed its lulling charities.
9Then save me, or the passed day will shine
10Upon my pillow, breeding many woes,--
11 Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
12Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
14And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.
Notes
1] First published in a Plymouth newspaper (1838). It had been copied into a journal letter to George Keats on April 30, 1819. Back to Line
13] wards: parts of a lock. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1848
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.647.
Rhyme