O sleep, my babe, hear not the rippling wave, <br />Nor feel the breeze that round thee ling'ring strays <br />To drink thy balmy breath, <br />And sigh one long farewell. <br /> <br />Soon shall it mourn above thy wat'ry bed, <br />And whisper to me, on the wave-beat shore, <br />Deep murm'ring in reproach, <br />Thy sad untimely fate. <br /> <br />Ere those dear eyes had open'd on the light, <br />In vain to plead, thy coming life was sold, <br />O waken'd but to sleep, <br />Whence it can wake no more! <br /> <br />A thousand and a thousand silken leaves <br />The tufted beech unfolds in early spring, <br />All clad in tenderest green, <br />All of the self-same shape: <br /> <br />A thousand infant faces, soft and sweet, <br />Each year sends forth, yet every mother views <br />Her last not least beloved <br />Like its dear self alone. <br /> <br />No musing mind hath ever yet foreshaped <br />The face to-morrow's sun shall first reveal, <br />No heart hath e'er conceived <br />What love that face will bring. <br /> <br />O sleep, my babe, nor heed how mourns the gale <br />To part with thy soft locks and fragrant breath, <br />As when it deeply sighs <br />O'er autumn's latest bloom.<br /><br />Sara Coleridge<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/o-sleep-my-babe/
