Who stole sleep from baby's eyes? I must know. <br />Clasping her pitcher to her waist mother went to fetch water <br />from the village near by. <br />It was noon. The children's playtime was over; the ducks in <br />the pond were silent. <br />The shepherd boy lay asleep under the shadow of the banyan <br />tree. <br />The crane stood grave and still in the swamp near the mango <br />grove. <br />In the meanwhile the Sleep-stealer came and, snatching sleep <br />from baby's eyes, flew away. <br />When mother came back she found baby travelling the room over <br />on all fours. <br />Who stole sleep from our baby's eyes? I must know. I must find <br />her and chain her up. <br />I must look into that dark cave, where, through boulders and <br />scowling stones, trickles a tiny stream. <br />I must search in the drowsy shade of the bakula grove, where <br />pigeons coo in their corner, and fairies' anklets tinkle in the <br />stillness of starry nights. <br />In the evening I will peep into the whispering silence of the <br />bamboo forest, where fireflies squander their light, and will ask <br />every creature I meet, "Can anybody tell me where the Sleep-stealer <br />lives?" <br />Who stole sleep from baby's eyes? I must know. <br />Shouldn't I give her a good lesson if I could only catch her! <br />I would raid her nest and see where she hoards all her stolen <br />sleep. <br />I would plunder it all, and carry it home. <br />I would bind her two wings securely, set her on the bank of <br />the river, and then let her play at fishing with a reed among the <br />rushes and water-lilies. <br />When the marketing is over in the evening, and the village <br />children sit in their mothers' laps, then the night birds will <br />mockingly din her ears with: <br />"Whose sleep will you steal now?"<br /><br />Sir Rabindranath Tagore<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sleep-stealer-2/
