by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Sleep, Sleep my Soul
Language: English
Sleep, sleep, my soul, let sorrow close thine eyes. Nurse fantasy records her lullabies. Fold up thine arms and into sighs expire. Deep sighs, the drowsy pages of desire. My restless heart whom troublous thoughts molest Shall cradle thee; thy cabin is my breast: Where neither sun of joy nor star of light Can break the mist of an affected night. Here sadness rules; and here thy drooping head Instead of down shall have a frozen bed; Love rocks thy panting cradle; and to bring thy thoughts asleep, melancholy shall sing. And when thou wakest to appease thy cries, Sad grief with tears distilling from mine eyes shall feed thy passion til that bitter food Do surfeit it and in my death conclude.
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author ( 17th century )  [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Scott Wheeler (b. 1952), "Sleep, Sleep my Soul", 1984 [ voice and piano ], from Singing to Sleep, no. 1, Scott Wheeler Music [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Eric Saroian
This text was added to the website: 2022-05-16
Line count: 17
Word count: 123