SOMNAMBULISM
I
Night is above me,
And Night is above the night.
The sea is beside me soughing, or is still.
The earth as a somnambulist moves on
In a strange sleep ...
A sea-bird cries.
And the cry wakes in me
Dim, dead sea-folk, my sires—
Who more than myself are me.
Who sat on their beach long nights ago and saw
The sea in its silence;
And cursed it or implored;
Or with the Cross defied;
Then on the morrow in their boats went down.
II
Night is above me ...
And Night is above the night.
Rocks are about me, and, beyond, the sand ...
And the low reluctant tide,
That rushes back to ebb a last farewell
To the flotsam borne so long upon its breast.
Rocks ... But the tide is out,
And the slime lies naked, like a thing ashamed
That has no hiding-place.
And the sea-bird hushes—
The bird and all far cries within my blood—
And earth as a somnambulist moves on.
poem by Cale Young Rice from Sea Poems (1921)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Related quotes
Night-Night (Children)
Night-night moon
Night-night stars
Night-night noisy
trucks and cars.
Night-night sand box
Night-night toys
Night-night other
girls and boys.
Night-night mom
Night-night dad
Night-night Boogie Man
who's not bad.
It's time to go to sleep now,
most all my night nights said.
Night-night blankie
Night-night bed.
Night of Nights
‘Twas deep; so deep of night,
When I saw what I had seen -
So truly deep of night,
When I went where I had been,
And really deep of night,
When I heard what I had heard:
Perhaps a fox or badger,
Or a sort of night-time bird.
‘Twas late that night of nights,
When something there was there -
So very late that night of nights,
Where that thing was where -
'Twas deep of night of nights,
When it ran to where it ran:
Perhaps a stoat or Billy goat,
Or ghostly little man.
‘Twas in the night of night of nights,
When something scary caused a scare -
So late of night of night of nights,
When something hairy raised my hair -
The deep of night of night of nights…
So don't you wonder what it was?
Well I never really truly saw it -
Why? Because because!
‘Twas in the night of night of night of nights
Oh I've had enough!
Night night.
Copyright Mark R Slaughter 2009
Night night, night night
Night night, night night
Night night
night
poem by Mark R Slaughter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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To a Sleeping Child
Lips, lips, open!
Up comes a little bird that lives inside
Up comes a little bird, and peeps, and out he flies.
All the day he sits inside, and sometimes he sings,
Up he comes, and out he goes at night to spread his wings.
Little bird, little bird, whither will you go?
Round about the world, while nobody can know.
Little bird, little bird, whither do you flee?
Far away around the world, while nobody can see.
Little bird, little bird, how long will you roam?
All round the world and around again home;
Round the round world, and back through the air,
When the morning comes, the little bird is there.
Back comes the little bird and looks and in he flies,
Up wakes the little boy, and opens both his eyes.
Sleep, sleep, little boy, little bird’s away,
Little bird will come again, by the peep of day;
Sleep, little boy, the little bird must go
Round about the world, while nobody can know.
Sleep, sleep sound, little bird goes round,
Round and round he goes; sleep, sleep sound.
poem by Arthur Hugh Clough
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The First Spring Day
THE sunshine died long ago,
Stifled out long ago,
And the waste of the world was grey,
And night was the best to know,
For night was to doze and forget the day,
To be warm and forgetting and still,
And need not the sun and know not the chill:
But oh, for the day that was darkened so!
Why gaze on a barren heaven,
Void and unchanging heaven,
On a barren earth in the grime,
And not a poor blossom given,
No thing that was thinking of sunshine time,
For a promise, a praise of the past?
And so one forgot the sunshine at last;
And sleep could avail, but what to have striven?
The sunshine wakes once anew,
Wakes and is born anew,
And the Age of the earth grows young,
And heaven has its youth for hue,
And hope is the tune of the spring-bird's tongue,
And the leaves in their prisons all hark,
And blossoms will know there is end of the dark:
One hour of the sun, and the spring-time grew!
The sunshine new on the earth,
Heaven to brighten the earth,
And the deathful dimness gone by,
The barren and winter dearth!
And to-day is the best till the next is nigh,
And to-night is to-morrow begun,
To-morrow, when blossoms remember the sun!
Dead hopes, are ye born with the blossoms birth?
poem by Augusta Davies Webster
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Night After Night
by Bob Dylan
Night after night you wander the streets of my mind.
Night after night don't know what you think you will find.
No place to go, nowhere to turn,
Everything around you seems to burn, burn, burn.
And there's never any mercy night after night.
Night after night
Night after night
Night after night some new plan to blow up the world.
Night after night another old man kissing some young girl.
You look for salvation, you find none.
Just another broken heart, another barrel of a gun,
Just another stick of dynamite night after night.
Night after night
Night after night
Night after night you drop dead in your bed,
Night after night another bottle finds a head.
Night after night I think about cutting you loose
But I just can't do it, what would be the use?
So I just keep a holding you tight night after night.
Night after night
Night after night
Night after night
Night after night
song performed by by Bob Dylan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Whispers From Other Sky
Cries the night in silence
Covers up the starshine
By the tears of darkness
Cries the night!
Cries the night unaware
Words of pain
Whispers of harassing
Cries the night!
Fade away the rashness
Fall down the mercy plea
With the last shadow
On the earth!
Dying eyes...beholding!
Dying ears...hearing!
Feeling from the other
Other sky!
Whispers from the other sky!!!
Whispers from the other sky!!!
Other sky unknowing
Oh!
Beyond the end
Kingdom of the other
Viskningar!
song performed by by Undercroft
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hardest Part Is The Night (live, Japan)
In the heat of the street of the city
A young boy hides the pain
And he walks so tall, trying to hang on
But he knows he's going down again
I know he's going down...
Darkness fades he's the prince of his city
In a place where they all know your name
You can see in their eyes life so paralyzed.
Your just a pawn in a losin' game
You lose at life it ain't no game
Hear their cries
The hardest part is the night
(In the night, hear their cries, in the night)
Stay alive
The hardest part is the night, it's the night, it's the night...
All alone in a place where the lonely
They all have to walk through the rain
And they dance on the edge where you only
Only pray that it has to end
That the night ain't no friend
Hear their cries
The hardest part is the night
(In the night, hear their cries, in the night)
Stay alive
The hardest part is the night, it's the night, it's the night...
(X 2)
These four walls they could tell you some stories
About lying and dying and fame
There's a price that you pay for the glory
About losing and choosing and pain.
Hear their cries
The hardest part is the night
In the night, hear their cries, in the night
Stay alive
In the night, stay alive, in the night
song performed by by Bon Jovi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ah, The Bird-night!
night fluttered
its wings-
a wounded bird
fallen into my lap
to be comforted
i lie awake
nursing bird-night
teary-feathers
gained strength
at the break of
a ruddy dawn
the bird will return
as night gathers, again!
poem by Indira Babbellapati
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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You Can't Hurry The Night
You can't hurry the night
Because the night will stay around as long as she wants
And we are not the boss of the night
Because the boss of the night is God and nobody else
But you just have to wait for the night to leave us
You can't hurry the night
Eventhought the night is long
You can't hurry the night becuse the night might be even cold during The winter nights that you might even freeze to death
But you just have to put some long underwear and you will be fine When you sleep in your bed
poem by Aldo Kraas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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All Night Long
We get up early and we work all day
We put our time in cause we like to stay up
All night long
We keep on grinnin till the weekend comes
Just a pinch between your cheek and gum
All night long, all night long
Start in the morning and get the job done
Take care of busness and we have some fun
All night long, all night long
We like a long neck and a good old song
Turn it up and then we sing along
Sing along
Were all stayin up all night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
All night long
song performed by by Eagles
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In A Vale
When I was young, we dwelt in a vale
By a misty fen that rang all night,
And thus it was the maidens pale
I knew so well, whose garments trail
Across the reeds to a window light.
The fen had every kind of bloom,
And for every kind there was a face,
And a voice that has sounded in my room
Across the sill from the outer gloom.
Each came singly unto her place,
But all came every night with the mist;
And often they brought so much to say
Of things of moment to which, they wist,
One so lonely was fain to list,
That the stars were almost faded away
Before the last went, heavy with dew,
Back to the place from which she came-
Where the bird was before it flew,
Where the flower was before it grew,
Where bird and flower were one and the same.
And thus it is I know so well
Why the flower has odor, the bird has song.
You have only to ask me, and I can tell.
No, not vainly there did I dwell,
Nor vainly listen all the night long.
poem by Robert Frost
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Scream
Oooh yeah...
You can fill my cup
You can fill my bowl
This train is ready to roll
Your eyes of fire has stole my soul
Still coming back for more
You are the lock I am the key
Climb on my lemon tree
You are the one youre on your knees
You are my little queen
You know just what I mean
Climb on my lemon tree
Make me scream
All night, all night long
Gonna get extreme
All night, all night long
Make me scream
All night, all night long
Gonna get obscene
All night, all night long
All night, all night long
Pretty baby in the back of my car
Look now youve gone too far
Have a slice of my lemon pie
One more will get you high
You wanna know, you wanna see
How much you can squeeze
You are the one,
You are a tease
You love my demon seed
You know just what I mean
Climb on my lemon tree
Make me scream
All night, all night long
Gonna get extreme
All night, all night long
Make me scream
All night, all night long
Gonna get obscene
All night, all night long
All night, all night long
Suck it!
Yeah!
You took me in the wild
No one around for miles
You aint too proud to beg
Juice running down my leg
I want a chick who makes me feel
Mmm... closer babe
I want you to be free
I want you lovin me
I want to hear you scream
I want to you to touch my leg
Make me scream
All night, all night long
Gonna get extreme
All night, all night long
Make me scream
All night, all night long
Gonna get obscene
All night, all night long
All night, all night long
Make me scream
All night, all night long
Gonna get extreme
All night, all night long
Make me scream
All night, all night long
Gonna get obscene
All night, all night long
All night, all night long
song performed by by Billy Idol
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Niggers Leap, New England
The eastward spurs tip backward from the sun.
Nights runs an obscure tide round cape and bay
and beats with boats of cloud up from the sea
against this sheer and limelit granite head.
Swallow the spine of range; be dark. O lonely air.
Make a cold quilt across the bone and skull
that screamed falling in flesh from the lipped cliff
and then were silent, waiting for the flies.
Here is the symbol, and climbing dark
a time for synthesis. Night buoys no warning
over the rocks that wait our keels; no bells
sound for the mariners. Now must we measure
our days by nights, our tropics by their poles,
love by its end and all our speech by silence.
See in the gulfs, how small the light of home.
Did we not know their blood channelled our rivers,
and the black dust our crops ate was their dust?
O all men are one man at last. We should have known
the night that tidied up the cliffs and hid them
had the same question on its tongue for us.
And there they lie that were ourselves writ strange.
Never from earth again the coolamon
or thin black children dancing like the shadows
of saplings in the wind. Night lips the harsh
scarp of the tableland and cools its granite.
Night floods us suddenly as history
that has sunk many islands in its good time.
poem by Judith Wright
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The bird sleeps in the bamboo grove
It is night.
The moon glows above the grove. There is another moon too in the pond.
The stars too glow, scattered all over the expansive sky.
It is a cool night.
The bird is asleep.
The bird rests on a bamboo branch with thick leaves.
And the night whispers to the bird:
'sleep gentle soul
that sings for delight;
sleep kind heart
that nature fashioned;
sleep while sister moon watches over you
sleep while the stars bless you
with starlight, starlight;
O sleep gentle soul
that sings for delight
sleep all night
in bamboo embrace'
poem by Raj Arumugam
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Last Night
She was there at the bar, she heard my guitar
She was long and tall, she was the queen of them all
Last night, thinking about last night
Last night, thinking about last night
She was dark and discreet, she was light on her feet
We went up to her room and she lowered the boom
Last night, thinking about last night
Last night, thinking about last night
Down below they danced and sang in the street
While up above the walls were steaming with heat
Last night, thinking about last night
Last night, thinking about last night
I was feeling no pain, feeling good in my brain
I looked in her eyes, they were full of surprise
Last night, talking about last night
Last night, talking about last night
I asked her to marry me she smiled and pulled out a knife
The partys just beginning she said, its your money or you life
Last night, talking about last night
Last night, talking about last night
Now Im back at the bar, she went a little too far
She done me wrong, all I got is this song
Last night, thinking about last night
Last night, thinking about last night
song performed by by George Harrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Here Comes The Night
Whoa, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa-whoa-whoa-yeah
I could see right out my window
Walkin down the street, my girl
With another guy
His arm around her
Like it used to be with me
Whoa, it makes me want to die-i
Yeah-yeah-yeah
Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-yeah
There they go
Its funny how they look so good together
Wonder what is wrong with me?
Why cant i, accept the fact shes chosen him
And simply let them be?
Whoa-whoa-whoa
Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
Here comes the night
Whoa-whoa-whoa-yeah
Shes with him hes turning down the lights
And now hes holding her
The way I used to do
I could see, her closing her eyes
And tellin him lies
Exactly like she told me, too
Yeah-yeah-yeah
Well, here it comes
Here comes the night
The long, the long and lonely night night, night, night, night, night, night
Fades-
Whoa, here comes the night
The long, the long, the long and lonely night
song performed by by Van Morrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Burn
don't look don't look" the shadows breathe
Whispering me away from you
"don't wake at night to watch her sleep
You know that you will always lose
This trembling
Adored
Tousled bird mad girl... "
But every night i burn
But every night i call your name
Every night i burn
Every night i fall again
"oh don't talk of love" the shadows purr
Murmuring me away from you
"don't talk of worlds that never were
The end is all that's ever true
There's nothing you can ever say
Nothing you can ever do... "
Still every night i burn
Every night i scream your name
Every night i burn
Every night the dream's the same
Every night i burn
Waiting for my only friend
Every night i burn
Waiting for the world to end
"just paint your face" the shadows smile
Slipping me away from you
"oh it doesn't matter how you hide
Find you if we're wanting to
So slide back down and close your eyes
Sleep a while
You must be tired... "
But every night i burn
Every night i call your name
Every night i burn
Every night i fall again
Every night i burn
Scream the animal scream
Every night i burn
Dream the crow black dream
Dream the crow black dream...
song performed by by Cure
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Party All Night
Hang loose
Party
Got my head to the grindstone
I'm trying to act like a fool
My head is a lampshade
They can't find me at school
Well I'm an animal
Yes I'm a cannonball
They say I'm out for blood
One thing I wanna do is
Party all night (Oh-oh!)
Party all night (Oh-oh-oh!)
Party all night (Yeah!)
All night long
Driving right way on the wrong side
A bit too much to drink
Women in the backseat
And they don't know what to think
They say I've lost my head
You'll probably end up dead
But they're too blind to see
What's a party to me, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Is to party all night (Oh-oh!)
Let's party all night (Oh-oh-oh!)
Party all night (Yeah!)
All night long
Uh!
Let's have a good time, good time
C'mon
Everybody's parties
I'm on a one way cruise
Lookin' for trouble
We got nothing to lose
They're on the telephone
They're trying to send me home
We're gonna pull the plug
We've got a new kind of school
Let's party all night
Let's party all night
Party all night
Let's party all night
(Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah)
Let's party all night (Oh!)
(We're party animals, baby)
Let's party all night (Oh-oh-oh!)
(We've got nothing to lose)
Let's party all night
All night long, yeah!
Let's party all night
Let's party boys
song performed by by Quiet Riot
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Hermit
WHAT moves that lonely man is not the boom
Of waves that break agains the cliff so strong;
Nor roar of thunder, when that travelling voice
Is caught by rocks that carry far along.
'Tis not the groan of oak tree i its prime,
When lightning strikes its solid heart to dust;
Nor frozen pond when, melted by the sun,
It suddenly doth break its sparkling crust.
What moves that man is when the blind bat taps
His window when he sits alone at night;
Or when the small bird sounds like some great beast
Among the dead, dry leaves so fraiil and light.
Or when the moths on his night-pillow beat
Such heavy blows he fears they'll break his bones;
Or when a mouse inside the papered walls,
Comes like a tiger crunching through the stones.
poem by William Henry Davies
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Get Your Rocks Off
by Bob Dylan
You know, there's two ol' maids layin' in the bed,
One picked herself up an' the other one, she said:
"Get your rocks off!
Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off-a me! (Get 'em off!)"
Well, you know, there late one night up on Blueberry Hill,
One man turned to the other man and said, with a blood-curdlin' chill, he said:
"Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off-a me! (Get 'em off!)"
Well, you know, we was layin' down around Mink Muscle Creek,
One man said to the other man, he began to speak, he said:
"Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off-a me! (Get 'em off!)"
Well, you know, we was cruisin' down the highway in a Greyhound bus.
All kinds-a children in the side road, they was hollerin' at us, sayin':
"Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off! (Get 'em off!)
Get your rocks off-a me!
song performed by by Bob Dylan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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