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THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sleep, sleep on! Forget thy pain
Last Line: My chain.'
Subject(s): Hypnotism; Williams, Edward; Williams, Jane


I

'SLEEP, sleep on! forget thy pain;
My hand is on thy brow,
My spirit on thy brain;
My pity on thy heart, poor friend;
And from my fingers flow
The powers of life, and like a sign,
Seal thee from thine hour of woe;
And brood on thee, but may not blend
With thine.

II

'Sleep, sleep on! I love thee not;
But when I think that he
Who made and makes my lot
As full of flowers, as thine of weeds,
Might have been lost like thee;
And that a hand which was not mine
Might then have charmed his agony
As I another's -- my heart bleeds
For thine.

III

'Sleep, sleep, and with the slumber of
The dead and the unborn
Forget thy life and love;
Forget that thou must wake forever;
Forget the world's dull scorn;
Forget lost health, and the divine
Feelings which died in youth's brief morn;
And forget me, for I can never
Be thine.

IV

'Like a cloud big with a May shower,
My soul weeps healing rain
On thee, thou withered flower;
It breathes mute music on thy sleep;
Its odor calms thy brain!
Its light within thy gloomy breast
Spreads like a second youth again.
By mine thy being is to its deep
Possessed.

V

'The spell is done. How feel you now?'
'Better -- quite well,' replied
The sleeper, -- 'What would do
You good when suffering and awake?
What cure your head and side?'
'What would cure, that would kill me, Jane;
And as I must on earth abide
A while, yet tempt me not to break
My chain.'





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