Hoofs of Pegasus

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>SLEEP</h2> <div class="poetry-container"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="bigfont">L</span>AST night I slid into the sea of sleep,</span> <span class="i0">Translucent, cool and deep.</span> <span class="i0">I left my dusty self upon the sand</span> <span class="i0">Like an old garment. Naked, free,</span> <span class="i0">I felt the waves close over me;</span> <span class="i0">The curious, eager water pressed</span> <span class="i0">Against the white curve of my breast.</span> <span class="i0">Then deep, deep</span> <span class="i0">Through the green depths I sank</span> <span class="i0">Into the sea of sleep.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">This morning I rose out of the dark tide,</span> <span class="i0">I rose through darkness, and there was no light,</span> <span class="i0">No radiance to illume</span> <span class="i0">The dusk; only the pallid gloom</span> <span class="i0">Of sleep. First green, then blue,</span> <span class="i0">Then the thin water parted, and the sun shone through.</span> <span class="i0">There lay my body; strangely it was I.</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">What did I bring back from the soundless deep</span> <span class="i0">From that grey, ancient sea of sleep:—</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The glint of sunken gold, the plaintive knell</span> <span class="i0">Of some drowned bell,</span> <span class="i0">Remembrance vague and dim</span> <span class="i0">Of ghostly argosies,</span> <span class="i0">The misty shores of far Hesperides,</span> <span class="i0">The wraith of mermaids beckoning white and slim,</span> <span class="i0">The faint sea-music of a curvéd shell.</span></div> </div></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />