When we have laid aside our last endeavour, <br />And said farewell to one or two that weep, <br />And issued from the house of life for ever, <br />To find a lodging in the house of sleep - <br /> <br />With eyes fast shut, in sunless chambers lying, <br />With folded arms unmoved upon the breast, <br />Beyond the noise of sorrow and of crying, <br />Beyond the dread of dreaming, shall we rest? <br /> <br />Or shall there come at last desire of waking, <br />To walk again on hillsides that we know, <br />When sunrise through the cold white mist is breaking, <br />Or in the stillness of the after-glow? <br /> <br />Shall there be yearning for the sound of voices, <br />The sight of faces, and the touch of hands, <br />The will that works, the spirit that rejoices, <br />The heart that feels, the mind that understands? <br /> <br />Shall dreams and memories crowding from the distance, <br />Shall ghosts of old ambition or of mirth, <br />Create for us a shadow of existence, <br />A dim reflection of the life of earth? <br /> <br />And being dead, and powerless to recover <br />The substance of the show whereon we gaze, <br />Shall we be likened to the hapless lover, <br />Who broods upon the unreturning days? <br /> <br />Not so: for we have known how swift to perish <br />Is man's delight when youth and health take wing, <br />Until the winter leaves him nought to cherish <br />But recollections of a vanished spring. <br /> <br />Dream as we may, desire of life shall never <br />Disturb our slumbers in the house of sleep. <br />Yet oh, to think we may not greet for ever <br />The one or two that, when we leave them, weep!<br /><br />Robert Fuller Murray<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-house-of-sleep/
