Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. I. Early Poetry: Chaucer to Donne

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

Sonnet LI. To Delia

CARE-CHARMER Sleep, son of the sable Night,

Brother to Death, in silent darkness born:

Relieve my languish and restore the light;

With dark forgetting of my care, return,

And let the day be time enough to mourn

The shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth:

Let waking eyes suffice to wail their scorn

Without the torment of the night’s untruth.

Cease dreams, the images of day desires,

To model forth the passions of the morrow;

Never let rising sun approve you liars,

To add more grief to aggravate my sorrow.

Still let me sleep, embracing clouds in vain,

And never wake to feel the day’s disdain.