To a Lady Sleeping
To a Lady Sleeping - meaning Summary
Sleep and Dawning Clarity
The speaker watches a sleeping woman and contrasts her dream-bound eyes with the incoming clarity of morning. He urges her, gently and almost reverently, to lift the veil of sleep so that clear vision may replace dream. Dawn already pushes back darkness—larks sing and angels look down—but her unconscious repose delays the day. The poem frames a quiet plea for awakening from dreamy inwardness into luminous perception.
Read Complete AnalysesO Thou whose fringed lids I gaze upon, Through whose dim brain the winged dreams are borne, Unroof the shrines of clearest vision, In honour of the silverflecked morn: Long hath the white wave of the virgin light Driven back the billow of the dreamful dark. Thou all unwittingly prolongest night, Though long ago listening the poised lark, With eyes dropt downward through the blue serene, Over heaven’s parapets the angels lean.
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