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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  To Sleep

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

To Sleep

By Maybury Fleming (b. 1853)

[Born in Boston, Mass., 1853. Uncollected Poems. 1884–88.]

SWEET wooded way in life, forgetful Sleep!

Dim, drowsy realm where restful shadows fall,

And where the world’s glare enters not at all

Or in soft glimmer making rest more deep;

Where sound comes not, or else like brooks that keep

The world’s noise out, as by a slumberous wall

Of gentlest murmur; where still whispers call

To smileless gladness those that waking weep;

Beneath the dense veil of thy stirless leaves,

Where no air is except the calm of space,

Vexed souls of men have grateful widowhood

Of tedious sense; there thoughts are bound in sheaves

By viewless hands as silent as the place;

And man, unsinning, finds all nature good.