| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| Fragment of a Sleep-Song |
| | | Sydney Dobell (1824–74) |
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| SISTER Simplicitie, | |
| Sing, sing a song to me, | |
| Sing me to sleep. | |
| Some legend low and long, | |
| Slow as the summer song | 5 |
| Of the dull Deep. | |
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| Some legend long and low, | |
| Whose equal ebb and flow | |
| To and fro creep | |
| On the dim marge of gray | 10 |
| ’Tween the soul’s night and day, | |
| Washing “awake” away | |
| Into “asleep.” | |
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| Some legend low and long, | |
| Never so weak or strong | 15 |
| As to let go | |
| While it can hold this heart | |
| Withouten sigh or smart, | |
| Or as to hold this heart | |
| When it sighs “No.” | 20 |
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| Some long low swaying song, | |
| As the sway’d shadow long | |
| Sways to and fro | |
| Where, thro’ the crowing cocks, | |
| And by the swinging clocks, | 25 |
| Some weary mother rocks | |
| Some weary woe. | |
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| Sing up and down to me | |
| Like a dream-boat at sea, | |
| So, and still so, | 30 |
| Float through the “then” and “when,” | |
| Rising from when to then, | |
| Sinking from then to when | |
| While the waves go. | |
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| Low and high, high and low, | 35 |
| Now and then, then and now, | |
| Mow, now; | |
| And when the now is then, and when the then is now, | |
| And when the low is high, and when the high is low, | |
| Low, low; | 40 |
| Let me float, let the boat | |
| Go, go; | |
| Let me glide, let me slide | |
| Slow, slow; | |
| Gliding boat, sliding boat, | 45 |
| Slow, slow; | |
| Glide away, slide away | |
| So, so. | |
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