Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Sir John Denham (16151669)Song: Morpheus, the humble god, that dwells
[From The Sophy, Act V.]
M
In cottages and smoky cells,
Hates gilded roofs and beds of down,
And though he fears no prince’s frown,
Flies from the circle of a crown.
And thy leaden charming-rod,
Dipt in the Lethean lake,
O’er his wakeful temples shake,
Lest he should sleep and never wake.
Obligèd to thy greatest foe?
Sleep that is thy best repast,
Yet of death it bears a taste,
And both are the same thing at last.