Sleep Poems | Poemist

Popular Sleep Poems

Disabled

by Wilfred Owen

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light blue trees,
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,-

......

Lament

by Dylan Thomas

When I was a windy boy and a bit
And the black spit of the chapel fold,
(Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women),
I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood,
The rude owl cried like a tell-tale tit,
I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled
Nine-pin down on donkey's common,
And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed
Whoever I would with my wicked eyes,
The whole of the moon I could love and leave

......

Sonnet (1928)

by Elizabeth Bishop

I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling finger-tips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody:

......

The Caterpillar

by Robert Graves

Under this loop of honeysuckle,
A creeping, coloured caterpillar,
I gnaw the fresh green hawthorn spray,
I nibble it leaf by leaf away.

Down beneath grow dandelions,
Daisies, old-man’s-looking-glasses;
Rooks flap croaking across the lane.
I eat and swallow and eat again.

......

The Unseen Playmate

by Robert Louis Stevenson

When children are playing alone on the green,
In comes the playmate that never was seen.
When children are happy and lonely and good,
The Friend of the Children comes out of the wood.

Nobody heard him, and nobody saw,
His is a picture you never could draw,
But he's sure to be present, abroad or at home,
When children are happy and playing alone.

......

Recent Sleep Poems

Snuggled in Sunshine

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

lost in gold glamour
hammock trees whisper green breeze
lotus color sprees

a warm noon warning
of soon tangerine caress
dragonfly's address

swinging sage summer
June beauties in lemon squeeze

......

Pieces of the Sleepless

by Brady Stewart

I cannot sleep
But the why isn't threatening
But it postpones the possibility,
Of a 6am wakeup.
I would like to say that annoys me
But kicking your toddler of a son
Off the bed,
Is disheartening.
So,
Maybe I’ll just write this

......

A great slumber

by Rex Keener

There once was a fellow in slumber
Whose alarm clock caused quite a blunder
He snored on too long
And his day went all wrong
Now at lunch his eyes start to shudder

Haunted

by Richard Randolph

Wise men advise us to not look back, and that makes sense,
because whether our memories are happy or sad,
they cannot be changed or undone.
But the past is always there
whether we acknowledge it or not,
ready to haunt us at the mention of a name,
or in the wee hours of the night
when darkness makes time disappear
and the past reawakens in our minds.

......

Laughter Recall

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

Playing in sunshine
is a twirling girl and cat
Meows and laughter
Romping away sweet moments
until the day is drowsing

In tall green grasses
pretty kitty's soon sleeping
in shadows of day
The orange sun's retreating

......