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Home  »  English Poetry II  »  350. The Sleeping Beauty

English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Samuel Rogers

350. The Sleeping Beauty


SLEEP on, and dream of Heaven awhile—

Tho’ shut so close thy laughing eyes,

Thy rosy lips still wear a smile

And move, and breathe delicious sighs!

Ah, now soft blushes tinge her cheeks

And mantle o’er her neck of snow:

Ah, now she murmurs, now she speaks

What most I wish—and fear to know!

She starts, she trembles, and she weeps!

Her fair hands folded on her breast:

—And now, how like a saint she sleeps!

A seraph in the realms of rest!

Sleep on secure! Above controul

Thy thoughts belong to Heaven and thee:

And may the secret of thy soul

Remain within its sanctuary!