| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | IV. Morphia | | By David Gray (1838–1861) |
| | | O PRECIOUS morphia! I sanctify | |
| The soothing power that in a painless swoon | |
| Laps my weak limbs, giving me strength to lie, | |
| Till sacred dawn increases until noon: | |
| Then when, from his meridional height, | 5 |
| The sun devolves, and cooling breezes wake, | |
| It is a comfort and divine delight | |
| The weary bed exhausted to forsake, | |
| And bathe my temples in the blessed air. | |
| But when day wanes and the wind-moaning night | 10 |
| Deepens to darkness, then thy virtue rare, | |
| O dream-creative liquid! brings delight, | |
| Thy silver drops diffusive kindly steep | |
| The senses in the golden juice of sleep. | | | | |
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