Over the edge of the purple down, <br />Where the single lamplight gleams, <br />Know ye the road to the Merciful Town <br />That is hard by the Sea of Dreams-- <br />Where the poor may lay their wrongs away, <br />And the sick may forget to weep? <br />But we--pity us! Oh, pity us! <br />We wakeful; ah, pity us! -- <br />We must go back with Policeman Day-- <br />Back from the City of Sleep! <br /> <br />Weary they turn from the scroll and crown, <br />Fetter and prayer and plough-- <br />They that go up to the Merciful Town, <br />For her gates are closing now. <br />It is their right in the Baths of Night <br />Body and soul to steep, <br />But we--pity us! ah, pity us! <br />We wakeful; oh, pity us!-- <br />We must go back with Policeman Day-- <br />Back from the City of Sleep! <br /> <br />Over the edge of the purple down, <br />Ere the tender dreams begin, <br />Look--we may look--at the Merciful Town, <br />But we may not enter in! <br />Outcasts all, from her guarded wall <br />Back to our watch we creep: <br />We--pity us! ah, pity us! <br />We wakeful; oh, pity us!-- <br />We that go back with Policeman Day-- <br />Back from the City of Sleep!<br /><br />Rudyard Kipling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-city-of-sleep/
