Song of the Sleeper

SLEEPER rest quietly

Deep underground!

Lord of your kingdom

Of murmurous sound.

Hear the grass growing

Sweet for the mowing;

Hear the stars sing

As they travel around —

Grass blade and star dust,

You, I, and all of us,

One with the cause of us,

Deep underground!

Murmur not, sleeper!

Yours is the key

To all things that were and

To all things that be —

While the lark's trilling,

While the grain's filling,

Laugh with the wind

At Life's Riddle-me-ree!

How you were born of it?

Why was the thorn of it?

Where the new morn of it?

Yours is the Key!

Sleep deeper, brother!

Sleep and forget

Red lips that trembled

Eyes that were wet —

Though love be weeping,

Turn to your sleeping,

Life has no giving

That death need regret.

Here at the end of all

Hear the Beginning call,

Life's but death's seneschal —

Sleep and forget!