We too shall Sleep
We too shall Sleep
Original Text
The Poems of Archibald Lampman, ed. Duncan Campbell Scott (Toronto: George N. Morang, 1900): 228, as reprinted in The Poems of Archibald Lampman (including At the Long Sault), intro. by Margaret Coulby of Toronto Press, 1974), and from Alcyone (Ottawa: Ogilvy, 1899).
2Belovèd child, the burning grasp of life
3Shall bruise the tender soul. The noise, and strife,
4And clamor of midday thou shalt not see;
5But wrapped for ever in thy quiet grave,
6Too little to have known the earthly lot,
7Time's clashing hosts above thine innocent head,
8Wave upon wave,
9Shall break, or pass as with an army's tread,
10And harm thee not.
11A few short years
12We of the living flesh and restless brain
13Shall plumb the deeps of life and know the strain,
14The fleeting gleams of joy, the fruitless tears;
15And then at last when all is touched and tried,
16Our own immutable night shall fall, and deep
17In the same silent plot, O little friend,
18Side by thy side,
19In peace that changeth not, nor knoweth end,
20We too shall sleep.
Notes
1] Lampman's baby son died a few months after his birth in 1894. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1899
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1997.
Rhyme