Lullaby

Portrait of William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats 1865–1939

Beloved, may your sleep be sound That have found it where you fed. What were all the world's alarms To mighty paris when he found Sleep upon a golden bed That first dawn in Helen's arms?

Sleep, beloved, such a sleep As did that wild Tristram know When, the potion's work being done, Roe could run or doe could leap Under oak and beechen bough, Roe could leap or doe could run;

Such a sleep and sound as fell Upon Eurotas' grassy bank When the holy bird, that there Accomplished his predestined will, From the limbs of Leda sank But not from her protecting care.

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