'Blessed barrier between day and day'
Sleep! If only it were that easy...here are two works that capture both the beauty of sleep and the nightmare of insomnia
William Wordsworth, ‘To Sleep’
A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by, One after one; the sound of rain, and bees Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas, Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky; I have thought of all by turns, and yet do lie Sleepless! and soon the small birds' melodies Must hear, first uttered from my orchard trees; And the first cuckoo's melancholy cry. Even thus last night, and two nights more, I lay And could not win thee, Sleep! by any stealth: So do not let me wear tonight away: Without thee what is all the morning's wealth? Come, blessed barrier between day and day, Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!
W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, opening of ‘The Nightmare Song’ from Iolanthe
When you're lying awake, with a dismal headache And repose is taboo'd by anxiety I conceive you may use any language you choose To indulge in, without impropriety: For your brain is on fire--the bedclothes conspire Of usual slumber to plunder you: First your counterpane* goes, and uncovers your toes And your sheet slips demurely from under you: Then the blanketing tickles, You feel like mixed pickles, So terribly sharp is the pricking And you're hot, and you're cross, And you tumble and toss, Till there's nothing 'twixt you and the ticking* Then the bedclothes all creep to the ground in a heap And you pick 'em all up in a tangle Next your pillow resigns and politely declines To remain at its usual angle: Well you get some repose in the form of a doze With hot eyeballs and head ever aching, But your slumbering teems with those horrible dreams And you'd very much better be waking... *counterpane: a quilt or blanket *ticking: sturdy fabric covering the stuffing of a mattress
About the Authors
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) is associated, along with collaborator and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with the Romantic movement in literature. He is best known for the collection Lyrical Ballads (1798), jointly published with Coleridge. Wordsworth’s great work of life writing and poetic recollection, The Prelude, was written and revised over many years and eventually titled and published by Mary Wordsworth in the year of his death. You can read past newsletters featuring Wordsworth in two excerpts from The Prelude: Perseverance and Growing up in nature.
W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911) wrote the words and Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) composed the music for the fourteen comic operas they wrote over the period 1871-96, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, and The Gondoliers, some of these enjoying tremendous success, with runs of over 500 performances.
See our other Gilbert and Sullivan newsletters here and here.
You might also enjoy our earlier newsletters featuring two authors side by side,as we’ve done today: one on Elizabeth Bishop and William Blake, one on Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry, and one on Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Browning. As always, we love to hear from you and are keen to know what you think of this format!
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