The Sleep of Endymion

Sweet Endymion, sleep fast beneath the gilded night

And hasten to thine arms the dreadful goddess who thy plight

For love of thee did so contrive, thy life to blight

Sleep, sleep constrained by mighty Jove’s long spell

Not ever shall thou hear the sombre tolling of death’s ghastly, leaden bell

Or see the face of he who would thee summon in thy time to heaven or hell

All wrapped in filigree of Titan’s beauteous silver child

Amid the world of shadows must thou walk, caressed by thoughts of fury wild

Never more to wake, to laugh or love, or be reviled

Endymion! Endymion! Deep in the chasm of thy sleep, undying ‘mid the sanctuary of great Selene’s keep

Cast out from the world wherein thy daughters weep

Eternal wanderer in the land of sleep

In stasis ‘tween the houses of the quick and dead

Time itself looks long at thee in pity and in dread

And weeps, for never can he lead thee to thy final bed