Come To Me, Gentle Sleep!

[“Mrs Hemans writes for all tastes and for all ages, as well as for all nations, and therefore she may do well to write in all sorts of style and manner. And, at all events, she who pleases others so well, may be allowed at times to please herself. Such strains as the following might soothe the ear of Rhadamanthus, and charm Cerberus to slumber.”--Eclectic Review, 1834.]

Come to me, gentle Sleep! I pine, I pine for thee; Come with thy spells, the soft, the deep, And set my spirit free! Each lonely, burning thought In twilight languor steep-- Come to the full heart, long o’erwrought, O gentle, gentle Sleep!

Come with thine urn of dew, Sleep, gentle Sleep! yet bring No voice, love’s yearning to renew, No vision on thy wing! Come, as to folding flowers, To birds in forests deep-- Long, dark, and dreamless be thine hours, O gentle, gentle Sleep!

SCENES AND HYMNS OF LIFE,