SLEEP-BOOK

SOME OF THE POETRY OF SLUMBER

COLLECTED BY

LEOLYN LOUISE EVERETT

NEW YORK

THE WATKINS COMPANY

1910

Three hundred and twenty copies of this book have been printed onhand-made Van Gelder paper, for The Watkins Company, at the press ofStyles & Cash New York, and type distributed.

This book is No.

To

ETHEL DU FRÉ HOUSTON

who has brought the joy and beauty of dream
into so many lives

I.

Peace, peace, thou over-anxious, foolish heart,

Rest, ever-seeking soul, calm, mad desires,

Quiet, wild dreams—this is the time of sleep.

Hold her more close than life itself. Forget

All the excitements of the day, forget

All problems and discomforts. Let the night

Take you unto herself, her blessed self.

Peace, peace, thou over-anxious, foolish heart,

Rest, ever-seeking soul, calm, mad desires,

Quiet, wild dreams—this is the time of sleep.

Leolyn Louise Everett.

II.

Sleep, softly-breathing god! his downy wing

Was fluttering now.

Samuel T. Coleridge.

I lay in slumber's shadowy vale

Samuel T. Coleridge.

III.

And more to lulle him in his slumber soft,

A trickling stream from high rock tumbling down

And ever-drizzling raine upon the loft,

Mixt with a murmuring winde, much like the sowne

Of swarming Bees, did cast him in a swowne.

No other noyse, nor peoples troublous cryes,

As still are wont t'annoy the walled towne,

Might there be heard; but carelesse Quiet lyes

Wrapt in eternal! silence farre from enimyes.

Edmund Spenser.

IV.

The waters murmuring,

With such cohort as they keep

Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep.

Il Penseroso.

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