English Poetry. James Weldon Johnson. Sleep. Джеймс Уэлдон Джонсон.

James Weldon Johnson (Джеймс Уэлдон Джонсон)

Sleep

O Sleep, thou kindest minister to man,
  Silent distiller of the balm of rest,
How wonderful thy power, when naught else can,
  To soothe the torn and sorrow-laden breast!
When bleeding hearts no comforter can find,
  When burdened souls droop under weight of woe,
When thought is torture to the troubled mind,
  When grief-relieving tears refuse to flow;
'Tis then thou comest on soft-beating wings,
  And sweet oblivion's peace from them is shed;
But ah, the old pain that the waking brings!
  That lives again so soon as thou art fled!

Man, why should thought of death cause thee to weep;
Since death be but an endless, dreamless sleep?

James Weldon Johnson’s other poems:

1. The Color Sergeant
2. Down by the Carib Sea. 4. The Lottery Girl
3. The Temptress
4. The Ghost of Deacon Brown
5. Mother Night

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

Abraham Cowley (Абрахам Каули) Sleep (“In vain, thou drowsy God! I thee invoke”)

Isaac Rosenberg (Айзек Розенберг) Sleep (“Godhead’s lip hangs”)

Henry Longfellow (Генри Лонгфелло) Sleep (“Lull me to sleep, ye winds, whose fitful sound”)

John Tabb (Джон Табб) Sleep (“When he is a little chap”)

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