Primary Texts

Lullaby

by W.B. Yeats

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.

Source:  Poems of Sleep and Dreams.  Everyman's Library, 2004. 43.  

Dream World

by Norman MacCaig

In your loving arms there lie
Serious field and fickle sky;
Syllables of your breath compose
Artic wind and desert rose;
And fidgiting Atlantics sigh
To sleep beneath your lullaby.

Let the presaging planets weep.
No nightmares from their mirrors creep
To touch you with their breath and show
The eyes of innocence how to know
The world you dandle into sleep
Rocks your cradle six feet deep.

Source:  Poems of Sleep and Dreams.  Everyman's Library, 2004.  40.

Sleepe, Angry Beauty

by Thomas Campion

Sleepe, angry beauty, sleep, and feare not me.
For who a sleeping Lyon dares provoke?
It shall suffice me here to sit and see
Those lips shut up that never kindely spoke.
What sight can more content a lover's minde
Then beauty seeming harmlesse, if not kinde?

My words have charm'd her, for secure shee sleepes ;
Though guilty much of wrong done to my love ;
And in her slumber, see, shee close-ey'd weepes :
Dreames often more then waking passions move.
Pleade, sleepe, my cause, and make her soft like thee,
That shee in peace may wake and pitty mee.

Source: Poems of Sleep and Dreams. Everyman's Library, 2004. 38.

Lullaby

by W.H. Auden

Lay your sleeping head, my love,
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.

Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While an abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's carnal ecstasy.

Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.

Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find our mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.

Source: Poems of Sleep and Dreams. Everyman's Library, 2004. 36-37.

Come, Sleep! (Sonnet XXXIX)

by Philip Sidney

Come Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace,
The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
The indifferent judge between the high and low;
With shield of proof, shield me from out the prease
Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw;
O make in me those civil wars to cease;
I will good tribute pay, if thou do so.
Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,
A chamber deaf to noise and blind to light,
A rosy garland and a weary head:
And if these things, as being thine by right,
Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me,
Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see.

Source: Poems of Sleep and Dreams. Everyman's Library, 2004. 33.

The Night Piece

by Thom Gunn

The fog drifts slowly down the hill
And as I mount gets thicker still,
Closes me in, makes me its own
Like bedclothes on the paving stone.

Here are the last few streets to climb,
Galleries, run through veins of time,
Almost familiar where I creep
Toward sleep like fog, through fog like sleep.

Source: Poems of Sleep and Dreams. Everyman's Library, 2004. 30.

Nodding

by Stevie Smith

Tizdal my beautiful cat
Lies on the old rag mat
In front of the kitchen fire.
Outside the night is black.

The great fat cat
Lies with his paws under him
His whiskers twitch in a dream,
He is slumbering.

The clock on the mantelpiece
Ticks unevenly, tic toc, tic-toc,
Good heavens what is the matter
With the kitchen clock?

Outside an owl hunts,
Hee hee hee hee,
Hunting in the Old Park
From his snowy tree.
What on earth can he find in the park tonight,
It is so wintry?

Now the fire burns suddenly too hot
Tizdal gets up to move,
Why should such an animal
Provoke our love?

The twigs from the elder bush
Are tapping on the window pane
As the wind sets them tapping,
Now the tapping begins again.

One laughs on a night like this
In a room half firelight half dark
With a great lump of a cat
Moving on the hearth,
And the twigs tapping quick,
And the owl in an absolute fit
One laughs supposing creation
Pays for its long plodding
Simply by coming to this -
Cat, night, fire - and a girl nodding.

Source:  Poems of Sleep and Dreams.  Everyman's Library, 2004.  23-24. 

The Angel

by William Blake

I dreamt a dream! What can it mean?
And that I was a maiden Queen
Guarded by an Angel mild:
Witless woe was ne'er beguiled!

And I wept both night and day,
And he wiped my tears away;
And I wept both day and night,
And hid from him my heart's delight.

So he took his wings, and fled;
Then the morn blushed rosy red.
I dried my tears, and armed my fears
With ten thousand shields and spears.

Soon my Angel came again;
I was armed, he came in vain;
For the time of youth was fled,
And grey hairs were on my head.

Source: The Portable Blake. Ed. Alfred Kazin. Viking Press, 1968.  108.  

The Little Girl Found

by William Blake

All the night in woe
Lyca's parents go
Over valleys deep,
While the deserts weep.

Tired and woe-begone,
Hoarse with making moan,
Arm in arm, seven days
They traced the desert ways.

Seven nights they sleep
Among shadows deep,
And dream they see their child
Starved in desert wild.

Pale through pathless ways
The fancied image strays,
Famished, weeping, weak,
With hollow piteous shriek.

Rising from unrest,
The trembling woman pressed
With feet of weary woe;
She could no further go.

In his arms he bore
Her, armed with sorrow sore;
Till before their way
A couching lion lay.

Turning back was vain:
Soon his heavy mane
Bore them to the ground,
Then he stalked around,

Smelling to his prey;
But their fears allay
When he licks their hands,
And silent by them stands.

They look upon his eyes,
Filled with deep surprise;
And wondering behold
A spirit armed in gold.

On his head a crown,
On his shoulders down
Flowed his golden hair.
Gone was all their care.

'Follow me,' he said;
'Weep not for the maid;
In my palace deep,
Lyca lies asleep.'

Then they followed
Where the vision led,
And saw their sleeping child
Among tigers wild.

To this day they dwell
In a lonely dell,
Nor fear the wolvish howl
Nor the lion's growl.

Source: The Portable Blake. Ed. Alfred Kazin. Viking Press, 1968. 104-106.

The Little Girl Lost

by William Blake

In futurity
I prophesy
That the earth from sleep
(Grave the sentence deep)

Shall arise, and seek
For her Maker meek;
And the desert wild
Become a garden mild.

In the southern clime,
Where the summer's prime
Never fades away,
Lovely Lyca lay.

Seven summers old
Lovely Lyca told.
She had wandered long,
Hearing wild birds' song.

'Sweet sleep, come to me,
Underneath this tree;
Do father, mother, weep?
Where can Lyca sleep?

'Lost in desert wild
Is your little child.
How can Lyca sleep
If her mother weep?

'If her heart does ache,
Then let Lyca wake;
If my mother sleep,
Lyca shall not weep.

'Frowning, frowning night,
O'er this desert bright
Let thy moon arise,
While I close my eyes.'

Sleeping Lyca lay,
While the beasts of prey,
Come from caverns deep,
Viewed the maid asleep.

The kingly lion stood,
And the virgin viewed:
Then he gambolled round
O'er the hallowed ground.

Leopards, tigers, play
Round her as she lay;
While the lion old
Bowed his mane of gold,

And her bosom lick,
And upon her neck,
From his eyes of flame,
Ruby tears there came;

While the lioness
Loosed her slender dress,
And naked they conveyed
To caves the sleeping maid.

Source: The Portable Blake. Ed. Alfred Kazin. Viking Press, 1968. 102-104.

A Dream

by William Blake

Once a dream did weave a shade
O'er my angel-guarded bed,
That an emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.

Troubled, wildered, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangle spray,
All heart-broke, I heard her say:

'Oh my children! do they cry,
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see,
Now return and weep for me.'

Pitying, I dropped a tear:
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied, 'What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?

'I am set to light the ground,
While the beetle goes his round:
Follow now the beetle's hum;
Little wanderer, hie thee home!' 

Source: The Portable Blake. Ed. Alfred Kazin. Viking Press, 1968.  96-97.

Night

by William Blake

The sun descending in the west,

The evening star does shine;

The birds are silent in their nest.

And I must seek for mine.

The moon, like a flower

In heaven's high bower,

With silent delight

Sits and smiles on the night.

Farewell, green fields and happy grove,

Where flocks have took delight:

Where lambs have nibbled, silent move

The feet of angels bright;

Unseen they pour blessing

And joy without ceasing

On each bud and blossom,

On each sleeping bosom.

They look in every thoughtless nest

Where birds are cover'd warm;

They visit caves of every beast,

to keep them all from harm:

If they see any weeping

That should have been sleeping,

They pour sleep on their head,

And sit down by their bed.

When wolves and tigers howl for prey,

They pitying stand and weep,

Seeking to drive their thirst away

And keep them from the sheep.

But, if they rush dreadful,

The angels, most heedful,

Receive each mild spirit,

New worlds to inherit.

And there the lion's ruddy eyes

Shall flow with tears of gold:

And pitying the tender cries,

And walking round the fold:

Saying, 'Wrath by His meekness,

And, by His health, sickness,

Are driven away

From our immortal day.

'And now beside thee, bleating lamb,

I can lie down and sleep,

Or think on Him who bore thy name,

Graze after thee, and weep.

For, wash'd in life's river,

My bright mane for ever

Shall shine like the gold

As I guard o'er the fold.'

Source: The Portable Blake. Ed. Alfred Kazin. Viking Press, 1968. 92-94.

A Cradle Song

by William Blake

Sweet dreams, form a shade
O'er my lovely infant's head!
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams!

Sweet Sleep, with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown!
Sweet Sleep, angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child!

Sweet smiles, in the night
Hover over my delight!
Sweet smiles, mother's smiles,
All the livelong night beguiles.

Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from thy eyes!
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dovelike moans beguiles.

Sleep, sleep, happy child!
All creation slept and smiled.
Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,
While o'er thee thy mother weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy image I can trace;
Sweet babe, once like thee
Thy Maker lay, and wept for me:

Wept for me, for thee, for all,
When He was an infant small.
Thou His image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee!

Smiles on thee, on me, on all,
Who became an infant small;
Infant smiles are His own smiles;
Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.

Source: The Portable Blake. Ed. Alfred Kazin. Viking Press, 1968. 90.

A "Clock for All Seasons" in the Human Brain, by Thomas Wehr

Psychobiologist Wehr presents the findings from his research into seasonal changes in the human circadian rhythm.  In particular, he discusses the emergence of bimodal sleep (sleep in two segments) in test subjects who remained in bed, in the dark, for the length of a mid-winter night.

"A 'Clock for All Seasons' in the Human Brain.  Ed. R.M. Buijs, et. al.  Hypothalamic Integration of Circadian Rhythms.  Elsevier, 1996.  319-340.   

Regulation of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms, edited by F.W. Turek and P.C. Zee

Comprehensive reference volume detailing the latest research on the relationship between sleep and circadian rhythms in mammals.

Consult the Text Online

Turek, F.W. and P. C. Zee, eds. Regulation of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms. Informa, 1999.

"Toward a Comparative Developmental Ecology of Human Sleep" by Carol Worthman and Melissa Melby

Worthman and Melby are perhaps the first anthropologists to consider the question: how do people in traditional societies sleep? By combing through the research of several ethnographers, they begin to sketch a picture of the sleep behavior of 10 contemporary non-Western societies. Of particular focus are sleep practices and rituals that occur around the onset of adolescence.

Read the Article Online

Print Source: Worthman, Carol M. and Melissa K. Melby. "Toward a Comparative Developmental Ecology of Human Sleep." Adolescent Sleep Patterns: Biological, Social, and Psychological Influences. Ed. Mary A. Carskadon. Cambridge UP, 2002.

This is the Imagining Sleep library, where you can browse for titles of books, articles, essays, poems, and artwork related to sleep and dream. I include links to online texts and images where possible. This catalog is ever growing, and some subject areas are more complete than others. Major updates are announced on the home page.

Anthropology, Culture, Religion

Art

Contemporary Sleep and Dream Science

Films

History of Sleep and Dream

Literature

News Articles

Philosophy

Poetry

Psychology

Online Exhibitions

Sleeping and Dreaming, The Wellcome Collection

Paintings

"The Artist's Dream" by John Anster Fitzgerald, 1857. Oil on millboard.

"Cupid and Psyche" by Edward Burne-Jones, c. 1865. Watercolor, bodycolor, and gold paint on wove paper. Manchester Art Gallery, UK.

"Diana and Endymion" by Frans Christoph Janneck, c. 18th century.

"Diana and Endymion" by Francesco Vellani, c. 18th century. Oil on canvas. Galleria e Museo Estense, Modena, Italy.

"The Dream" by Charles Chaplin, 1857. Oil on canvas. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille.

"The Dream: 'In his sleep he saw Love, Glory and Wealth appear to him'" by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, 1883. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

"Dreams" by Stefani Melton Fisher, Gallery Oldham, UK.

"Dreaming in the Bath" by Lucy Raverat, 1991. Acrylic.

"Early Morning" by Dod Procter, 1927. Oil on canvas. oyal Pavilion, Libraries & Museums, Brighton & Hove, UK.

"Endymion Asleep" by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, 1793. Oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.

"The Fan" by Albert Moore, c. 1875.

"The First Watch" by Richard Ansdell, c. 19th century.

"Flaming June" by Frederick Lord Leighton, 1895. Oil on canvas. Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico.

"The House of Sleep" by Chris Gollon, 1998. Mixed media on panel.

"In the Arms of Morpheus" by William Ernest Reynolds-Stephens.

"In Bed" by Sophie Hacker, c. 20th century. Pastel on handmade paper.

"Joan of Arc" by George W. Joy, 1895.

"Lena's Dream" by Magdolna Ban, c. 20th century. Oil on canvas.

"Light Sleep" by Dod Procter, c. 20th century.

"Midsummer" by Albert Moore, 1887. Oil on canvas. Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK.

"A Naiad" by John William Waterhouse, c. 1905.

"Narcissus" by Helen Thornycroft, 1876. Watercolor. Mallett Gallery, London.

"Night" by Guiseppe Bonito, c. 18th century. Oil on canvas.

"Night, central section of The Golden Age Triptych" by Leon Henri Marie Frederic, 1900. Oil on canvas. Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

"Night" by Ferdinand Hodler, 1890. Oil on canvas. Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland.

"Night and Her Child Sleep" by Simeon Solomon, 1892. Red chalk on paper.

"Night with her Train of Stars" by Edward Robert Hughes, 1912. Water color with gouache on paper. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.

"The Nightmare" by John Anster Fitzgerald, c. 1857. Watercolor on paper.

"The Nightmare" by Johann Fuseil, 1781. Oil on canvas. The Detroit Institute of Arts.

--, c. 1782. Oil on canvas. Goethe Museum, Frankfurt.

"The Reconcilation of Oberon and Titania" by Joseph Noel Paton, 1847. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.

"Shades of Sleep" by Odilon Redon, c. 19th century. Pastel on paper.

"Siesta" by Gerald Kelly, c. 20th century.

"The Siesta" by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1911. Oil on canvas. Museo Sorolla, Madrid.

"Silent Man" by Andrew Gadd, 1995. Oil on canvas.

"Sleep" by Louis Joseph Raphael Collin, 1873. Oil on canvas. Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen.

"Sleep" by Salvador Dali, 1937. Oil on canvas.

"Sleep" by Madeleine Lemaire, 1890.

"Sleep for Yvonne Rainier" by Robert Rauschenberg, 1965. Mixed media.

"The Sleep of the Infant Jesus" by Charles LeBrun, 1655. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris.

"Sleep Overcomes Them" by Francisco Goya, 1799. Plate 34 of Los Caprichos. Etching and burnished aquatint.

"The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" by Francisco Goya, 1799. Plate 43 of Los Caprichos. Etching and aquatint.

"The Sleep of Venus and Cupid" by Constance Marie Mayer-Lamartiniere, 1806. Oil on canvas. Wallace Collection, London.

"Sleeping Cat" by Tsugouharu Leonard Foujita, 1956. Ink and watercolor on paper.

"A Sleeping Girl" by Albert Moore, 1875.

"The Sleeping Princess" by Frances MacDonald, 1897.

"Sleeping Woman" by Henri-Charles Manguin, c. 20th century. Oil on canvas.

"Sleeping Woman" by Sandor Liezen-Meyer, c. 19th century. Oil on canvas. Magyar Nemzeti Galeria, Budapest.

"A Stolen Kiss" by Marcus Stone, c. 1894. Oil on canvas.

"Summer Moon" by Frederick Lord Leighton, 1872.

"A Summer Night" by Albert Moore, c. 1887. Oil on canvas. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

"Sweet Dreams" by Thomas Brooks, c. 19th century.

"Twilight" by Evelyn De Morgan, c. 19th century. Oil on canvas. The De Morgan Center, London.

"Venus, Satyr and Cupid" by Correggio, 1528. Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris.

"Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus, Octavia, and Livia," 1819. Oil on canvas. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

"The Vision of Endymion" by Edward John Poynter, 1902. Oil on canvas. Manchester Art Gallery, UK.

"Woman Dreaming" by Thomas Kennington, c. 19th century. Oil on canvas.

"Ydelnesse" by Keith Henderson, c. late 20th century.

Sculpture

"Ariadne Asleep," Hellenistic from Alexandria, 2nd century BC. Marble. Louvre, Paris.

"Head of Hypnos," Roman, 1st-2nd-century AD copy of Hellenistic original, found at Civitella d'Arno, Italy. Bronze. British Museum, London.

"Head of Hypnos" by Fernand Khnopf, c. 1890. Bronze.

Insomnia Song

by Gregory Orr

Is it me tossing
or is this bed
a small boat
in an unprotected
cove?
        Haul
anchor I suppose.
That is: turn on
a light and read
all night.
        Book
open on my knees;
its pages: white
sails spread.

Fleeing hell,
that's in the head.

Source: Acquainted with the Night: Insomnia Poems.  Ed. Lisa Russ Spaar.  Columbia UP, 1999. 36.

Insomnia

by Joyce Carol Oates

Lie down in sleep but suddenly
this windowless bathroom?
white-glaring tiles? porcelain
sink so fiercely scoured
it's dancing with flames?
and no shadowy corners?
and the chrome faucets
too hot to touch? and
the perfect pool of the toilet
bowl in which a single eyeball
floats? and the mirror
so polished there's nothing
beyond the surface not even
             you?

Source: Acquainted with the Night: Insomnia Poems.  Ed. Lisa Russ Spaar.  Columbia UP, 1999. 22.