ODE I TO SLEEP. I. FRIEND to the gloomy shade of night! Vast source of fanciful delight! Power! whose care-dissolving sway The slave that pants o'er Indian hills, The wretch whom snow-girtZembla chills, And wide creation's fertile race obey: The joyous choristers that flit in air, The mutes that dwell beneath the silver flood, The savage howling o'er the affrighted wood, And man, the imperious lord of all, thy power declare. II. Thy magick wand can oft restrain The miser's sordid hopes of gain; Can make each heart-felt trouble cease; Or from the sickening thought suspend The image of a dying friend; And lull suspicion's wakeful eyes in peace. If thou but sooth the faithful lover's rest, No fond remembrance of each parting sigh, Of beauty's smile, or pity's streaming eye, In grief's soft moments steal around his aching breast. III. Fair virtue's friend! thou ne'er shalt shed To ermin'd Innocence are known, With double terror wrings the tortur'd soul; The purpled steel, the life-destructive bowl, Recall the baleful horrors of the blood hespilt. IV. When by some pale and livid light The dying taper warns to rest, Thy visions seize my ravish'd breast, And pictur'd beauties real woes assuage: O'er Helicon✶ my bleating lambs I guard, Or, mix'd with dull Boeotia's simple swains, Protect my flocks in humble Ascra's plains, And view the sky-born sisters hail their favourite bard. V. Methinks I hear the Theban lyre; The festive choirs their hopes proclaim, While Pan exults with uncouth signs of joy: * Hesiod is said to have led the life of a shepherd on Mount Helicon, where, as he relates in his Theogony, the Muses appeared to him, and adopted him in their service. V. 24. |