Social Commentaries
Michael Angelo in Reply to the Passage upon his Statue of Night Sleeping
From Poetical Works, ed. Knight (1896), vol. VIII
Grateful is Sleep, my life, in stone bound fast,
More grateful still: while wrong and shame shall last,
On me can Time no happier state bestow
Than to be left unconscious of the woe.
Ah then, lest you awaken me, speak low.
Grateful is Sleep, more grateful still to be
Of marble; for while shameless wrong and woe
Prevail, ’tis best to neither hear nor see.
Then wake me not, I pray you. Hush, speak low.
Codex Note
Composed 1806 (Knight, conjectural). Two translations of Michael Angelo's fragment on Sleep.
Cite this poem
MLA
Wordsworth, William. “Michael Angelo in Reply to the Passage upon his Statue of Night Sleeping.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wordsworth/900/.
Chicago
Wordsworth, William. “Michael Angelo in Reply to the Passage upon his Statue of Night Sleeping.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wordsworth/900/.
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