A Prayer to Sleep

O Sleep, to-night be tender to my Love;
Hold her within thy clasp, so dear and deep;
Press gently on those sweetest eyes, kind Sleep:
Let no sad thought of me intrude, to move
Her heart to grief; but through some fair dream-grove
Where faint songs steal, and gentle shadows creep,
And mystic stars and moons of dreamland keep
Their fond, persistent vigil, let her rove:

And if a dream of me must come, at all,
Oh, show me to her glad with love and strong;
Let on her mouth my garnered kisses fall,
And to her ears make audible that song
I sang her once, when at her feet I lay,
At close of one divine, love-laden day!