Fragment Of A Sleep-Song

SISTER Simplicitie, 
Sing, sing a song to me, 
Sing me to sleep. 
Some legend low and long, 
Slow as the summer song
Of the dull Deep. 
 
Some legend long and low, 
Whose equal ebb and flow 
To and fro creep 
On the dim marge of gray
’Tween the soul’s night and day, 
Washing “awake” away 
Into “asleep.” 
 
Some legend low and long, 
Never so weak or strong
As to let go 
While it can hold this heart 
Withouten sigh or smart, 
Or as to hold this heart 
When it sighs “No.”
 
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,
Some weary mother rocks 
Some weary woe. 
 
Sing up and down to me 
Like a dream-boat at sea, 
So, and still so,
Float through the “then” and “when,” 
Rising from when to then, 
Sinking from then to when 
While the waves go. 
 
Low and high, high and low,
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;
Let me float, let the boat 
Go, go; 
Let me glide, let me slide 
Slow, slow; 
Gliding boat, sliding boat,
Slow, slow; 
Glide away, slide away 
So, so.