Explore "Sleep's Treachery" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
As the grey twilight, tiptoed down the deep / And shadowy valley, to the day's dark end, / She whom I thought my ever-faithful friend, / Fair-browed, calm-eyed and mother-bosomed Sleep, / Met me with smiles. ‘Poor longing heart, I keep / Sweet joy for you,' she murmured. ‘I will send / One whom you love, with your own soul to blend / In visions, as the night hours onward creep.'
I trusted her; and watched by starry beams, / I slumbered soundly, free from all alarms. / Then not my love, but one long banished came, / Led by false Sleep, down secret stairs of dreams / And clasped me, unresisting in fond arms. / Oh, treacherous sleep-to sell me to such shame!