HASTE! gentle Sleep! in pity shed
Thy blessings on my weary head:
Come! but do not come alone,
Bring the partners of thy throne,
Airy Dreams!-a sportive train,
Soothing to the troubled brain;
Dreams, that transient joys impart,
Cordials of the fainting heart.
Let Health’s glowing daughters own
(Torpid Queen!) thy pow’r alone:
They who thro’ the glare of day
Sport in Fortune’s golden ray,
Blest with many a gay delight,
They may spare the hours of night:
But the maid whose fading eyes
See the joyless morn arise,
She, whom sickness, pain, and care
Thro’ Day’s ling’ring moments share,
When Night ascends her starry throne
Seeks not calm repose alone.
Then, airy Dreams! she courts your pow’r,
You who can gild the midnight hour
With many a bright and cheering ray,
Fairy form and prospect gay.
Yes!-dear delusions!-well I know
What various pleasures you bestow;
Pleasures free from glare and noise,
Such as Virtue oft employs
To sooth the pain her vot’ries feel,
And ease the wound she cannot heal.
O! come once more, with downy wings,
And bear me hence to cooling springs!
Such as murmur thro’ the grove
Where Shenstone’s Muse was wont to rove:
There shall blooming Health once more
All her long-lost joys restore,
And bid my feet resume again
Strength to tread the verdant plain;
While to my enraptur’d eyes,
Where’er I turn gay scenes arise;
Scenes in which combin’d appear,
Each beauty of the varying year:
Spring’s op’ning sweets perfume the gale,
And Summer paints the blushing vale,
While Autumn’s richer tints improve
The beauty of the nodding grove,
And Winter flings a robe of snow
O’er the distant mountain’s brow,
Where the radiant orb of day
Darts in vain his noontide ray.
See! the magic scene expands,
Various cliches and distant lands;
Air and sea your pow’r obey,
Art and Nature own your sway.
Araby thy spicy gale
Breathes perfume thro’ Deva’s vale;
India’s palm with graceful pride
Waves o’er Conway’s foaming tide,
And the spoils of Tadmor’s sands
Grace Britannia’s cultur’d lands.
Now the silver lamp of Night
Pours a flood of soften’d light–
See!-a bright celestial train
Shoot across the starry plain:
Now their radiant forms advance,
Mingling in fantastic dance
To sprightly strains and melting airs
That sooth to peace our earthly cares.
See!-they gild the mountain’s brow
And the wave that rolls below;
O’er the blue expanse they glide
Now they plunge beneath the tide!
These are the fairy scenes that rise,
When to your aid fair Fancy flies:
Or, should the sportive queen disdain
To mingle with your airy train,
Another pow’r shall lend her aid,
In less fantastic garb array’d.
See!-Memory opes her hidden treasures,
Childish sports and early pleasures;
Joys and griefs, a mingled train,
Smiling hopes and wishes vain;
Young ideas, gaily drest,
Offspring of the infant breast:
These, by your magic art combin’d,
Divert or sooth the weary’d mind.
Nor will your votary complain
Tho’ Grief and Terror join the train.
When plung’d in visionary woes,
What joy the waking hour bestows,
When clasp’d in Friendship’s fond embrace,
And gazing on the long-known face,
She gently wipes the falling tear,
Prepar’d to wet her shadowy bier!
No longer Superstition flings
Her mantle o’er your downy wings,
Transforming, by her gloomy pow’r,
The gay delusions of an hour,
To hopes that lead the mind astray,
And fears that cloud life’s brightest day.
Philosophy, with friendly hand,
Has freed you from her dread command;
Has bade her favour’d son* explain
The blessings of your gentle reign.
O! be these blessings ever shed
Upon your votary’s sleeping head,
And nightly to her view restore
The charms which day reveals no more.
(Maria Logan)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, Light Poems, Mind Poems, Faces Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Youth Poems, Fairness Poems, Dreams Poems, Friendship Poems, Kings & Queens Poems, Beauty PoemsBased on Keywords: cordials, cultur, tadmor, conway, deva, shenstone, clichés, long-known