I. A Clear Midnight (Whitman)
This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best.
Night, sleep, and the stars.
II. A Night Song (Moore)
The young May moon is beaming; love,
The glow-worm’s lamp is gleaming,
How sweet to rove through Morna’s grove,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
Then awake! The heav’ns look bright, my dear,
‘Tis ne’er too late for delight,
and best of all the ways to lengthen days
is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
III. Sleeping (Dickinson)
A long, long sleep, a famous sleep
That makes no show for dawn
By strech of limb or stir of lid, –
An independent one.
Was ever idleness like this?
Within a hut of stone
To bask the centuries away
Nor once look up for noon?
