English Poetry. Alice Meynell. To Sleep. Элис Мейнелл.

Alice Meynell (Элис Мейнелл)

To Sleep

             Dear fool, be true to me!
I know the poets speak thee fair, and I
            Hail thee uncivilly.
O but I call with a more urgent cry!

            I do not prize thee less,
I need thee more, that thou dost love to teach—
            Father of foolishness—
The imbecile dreams clear out of wisdom's reach.

            Come and release me; bring
My irresponsible mind; come in thy hours.
            Draw from my soul the sting
Of wit that trembles, consciousness that cowers.

            For if night comes without thee
She is more cruel than day. But thou, fulfil
            Thy work, thy gifts about thee—
Liberty, liberty, from this weight of will.

            My day-mind can endure
Upright, in hope, all it must undergo.
            But O afraid, unsure,
My night-mind waking lies too low, too low.

            Dear fool, be true to me!
The night is thine, man yields it, it beseems
            Thy ironic dignity.
Make me all night the innocent fool that dreams.

Alice Meynell’s other poems:

1. “The Return to Nature”
2. In Early Spring
3. The Visiting Sea
4. After a Parting
5. The Young Neophyte

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

John Keats (Джон Китс) To Sleep (“O SOFT embalmer of the still midnight”)

Helen Cone (Хелен Коун) To Sleep (“All slumb’rous images that be, combined”)

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