If thou [wilt]1 ease thine heart Of love and all its smart, Then sleep, dear, sleep; And not a sorrow Hang any tear on your eyelashes; Lie still and [deep],2 Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes The rim o' th' sun tomorrow, In eastern sky. But [wilt]1 thou cure thine heart Of love and all its smart, Then die, dear, die; 'Tis deeper, sweeter, Than on a rose bank to lie dreaming [With folded eye;]3 And then alone, amid the beaming Of love's stars, thou'lt meet her In eastern sky.
Six Songs
Song Cycle by Henry Beaumont Walmisley (flourished 1855)
?. Then sleep, dear, sleep  [sung text not yet checked]
Language: English
Authorship:
- by Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803 - 1849), no title, appears in Death's Jest Book or The Fool's Tragedy, first published 1850
See other settings of this text.
View original text (without footnotes)1 Parry: "would'st"
2 Britten: "deep,/ With folded eye;" (moved from the second stanza)
3 omitted by Britten (moved to the first stanza); Parry: "With tranced eye"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
Total word count: 90