Poem by Edward Dowden

A Child’s Noonday Sleep

Because you sleep, my child, with breathing light
  As heave of the June sea,
Because your lips soft petals dewy-bright
  Dispart so tenderly;

Because the slumbrous warmth is on your cheek
  Up from the hushed heart sent,
And in this midmost noon when winds are weak
  No cloud lies more content;

Because nor song of bird, nor lamb’s keen call
  May reach you sunken deep,
Because your lifted arm I thus let fall
  Heavy with perfect sleep;

Because all will is drawn from you, all power,
  And Nature through dark roots
Will hold and nourish you for one sweet hour
  Amid her flowers and fruits;

Therefore though tempests gather, and the gale
  Through autumn skies will roar,
Though Earth send up to heaven the ancient wail
  Heard by dead Gods of yore;

Though spectral faiths contend, and for her course
  The soul confused must try,
While through the whirl of atoms and of force
  Looms an abandoned sky;

Yet, know I, Peace abides, of earth’s wild things
  Centre, and ruling thence;
Behold, a spirit folds her budded wings
  In confident innocence.

1. In the Galleries
2. On the Heights
3. The Wanderer
4. “La Révélation par le Désert”
5. In the Garden

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