The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
Baltasar del Alcázar (15301606)Sleep
S
It has caprices of its own;
When most pursued, ’tis swiftly gone;
When courted least, it lingers still.
With its vagaries long perplext,
I turned and turned my restless sconce,
Till, one fine night, I thought at once
I’d master it. So hear my text.
My long and well-accustomed prayer,
And in a twinkling sleep is there,
Through my bed-curtains peeping in.
When sleep hangs heavy on my eyes,
I think of debts I fain would pay,
And then, as flies night’s shade from day,
Sleep from my heavy eyelids flies.
E’en his fantastic will to me,
And, strange yet true, both I and he
Are friends—the very best of friends.
We are a happy wedded pair,
And I the lord and he the dame;
Our bed, our board, our dreams the same,
And we’re united everywhere.
This wayward sleep: a whispered word
From a church-going hag I heard,
And tried it, for I was no fool.
So, from that very hour I knew
That, having ready prayers to pray,
And having many debts to pay,
Will serve for sleep, and waking too.