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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  490. Cradle Song

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

William Blake. 1757–1827

490. Cradle Song

SLEEP, sleep, beauty bright, 
Dreaming in the joys of night; 
Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep 
Little sorrows sit and weep. 
 
Sweet babe, in thy face         5
Soft desires I can trace, 
Secret joys and secret smiles, 
Little pretty infant wiles. 
 
As thy softest limbs I feel 
Smiles as of the morning steal  10
O’er thy cheek, and o’er thy breast 
Where thy little heart doth rest. 
 
O the cunning wiles that creep 
In thy little heart asleep! 
When thy little heart doth wake,  15
Then the dreadful night shall break.