by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849)
Sleep on, sleep on, another hour —
Language: English
Sleep on, sleep on, another hour — I would not break so calm a sleep, To wake to sunshine and to show'r, To smile and weep. Sleep on, sleep on, like sculptured thing, Majestic, beautiful art thou; Sure seraph shields thee with his wing And fans thy brow — We would not deem thee child of earth, For, O, angelic, is thy form! But, that in heav'n thou had'st thy birth, Where comes no storm To mar the bright, the perfect flow'r, But all is beautiful and still — And golden sands proclaim the hour Which brings no ill. Sleep on, sleep on, some fairy dream Perchance is woven in thy sleep — But, O, thy spirit, calm, serene, Must wake to weep.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Edgar Allan Poe, The Complete Works, DigiCat, 2022
Text Authorship:
- by Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849), "To ——", written 1833, appears in Tamerlane and Other Poems [author's text checked 1 time 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 Jodi Goble (b. 1974), "Sleep on, sleep on" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2025-10-09
Line count: 20
Word count: 123