The Sleeper

By Laurence Alma-Tadema

There lay a man on clovered ground

Whose life was death, he slept so sound;

A child bent low to watch his eyes —

He smiling waked, and saw the skies.

I know a soul now, fast asleep,

Whose dreams are sad: I hear him weep;

I bend and gaze for pity's sake —

But all in vain; he will not wake.