English poem
“Come, Gentle Sleep, Death’S Image Tho’ Thou Art”
Come, gentle Sleep, Death’s image tho’ thou art, Come share my couch, nor speedily depart; How sweet thus living without life to lie, Thus without death how sweet it is to die.
The Latin verse by Thomas Warton, of which these lines are a translation, is as follows:--
Somne veni! quamvis placidissima Mortis imago es, Consortem cupio te tamen esse tori; Hue ades, haud abiture citò! nam sic sine vita Vivere quam suave est, sic sine morte mori!
Thomas Warton, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and Professor of Poetry in that University, is chiefly known by his History of English Poetry (1774-1781).--ED.
More by William Wordsworth
- “BLEAK SEASON WAS IT, TURBULENT AND BLEAK”
- “Blest Statesman He, Whose Mind’S Unselfish Will”
- “Brook, That Hast Been My Solace Days And Weeks”
- “By A Blest Husband Guided, Mary Came”[53]
- “Critics, Right Honourable Bard, Decree”
- “Deign, Sovereign Mistress! To Accept A Lay”
- “Desponding Father! Mark This Altered Bough”
- “Feel For The Wrongs To Universal Ken”