| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Song: ‘Morpheus, the humble god, that dwells’ | | By Sir John Denham (1615–1669) |
| | | MORPHEUS, the humble god, that dwells | |
| In cottages and smoky cells, | |
| Hates gilded roofs and beds of down; | |
| And though he fears no prince’s frown, | |
| Flies from the circle of a crown. | 5 |
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| Come, I say, thou powerful god, | |
| And thy leaden charming-rod, | |
| Dipt in the Lethéan lake, | |
| O’er his wakeful temples shake, | |
| Lest he should sleep, and never wake. | 10 |
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| Nature, alas! why art thou so | |
| Obligèd to thy greatest foe? | |
| Sleep that is thy best repast, | |
| Yet of death it bears a taste, | |
| And both are the same things at last. | 15 | | | |
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