Innocence Asleep
A fair dark-eyed lassie was she,
Her thirteenth summer passed,
Who pursuing blue-eyed daisy,
Herself had over-tasked;
And fell asleep in the meadow,
Where the wildest flowers blow.
I read the dreams upon her face.
Through dimples in her cheek,
And smiles which trace the subtle grace
Of innocence asleep.
'I was dreaming,' she made reply,
A blush her whole physique,
When my kerchief fell upon the fly
That lit upon her cheek;
Hard by the laughing brooklet's sheen
Caught the poise of her face between,
Demurring pout and sly grimace,
Through her dishelved hair;
As she stood there an angel fair
With innocence awake.
poem by Samuel Alfred Beadle
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
The Bonnie Lass o' Dundee
O' a' the toons that I've been in,
I dearly love Dundee,
It's there the bonnie lassie lives,
The lass I love to see. Her face is fair, broon is her hair,
And dark blue is her e'e,
And aboon a' the lasses e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
I see her in my night dreams,
Wi' her bonnie blue e'e,
And her face it is the fairest,
That ever I did see;
And aboon a' the lassies e'er I eaw,
There's nane like her to me,
For she makes my heart feel lichtsome,
And I'm aye richt glad to see
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
Her eyes, they beam with innocence,
Most lovely for to see,
And her heart it is as free from guile,
As a child on its mother's knee;
And aboon a' the lasses e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me,
For she aye seems so happy, And has a blythe bhnk in her e'e
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
The lassie is tidy in her claes,
Baith neat and clean to see;
And her body's sma and slender,
And a neat foot has she;
And aboon a' the lassies e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
She sings like the nightingale,
Richt merrily, or a wee lintie,
Wi' its heart fou' o' glee,
And she's as frisky as a bee;
And aboon a' the lassies e'er I saw,
There's nane like her to me
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie o' Bonnie Dundee.
The lassie is as handsome
As the lily on the lea,
And her mou' it is as red
As a cherry on the tree;
And she's a' the world to me,
The bonnie broon-hair'd lassie
Wi' the bonnie blue e'e,
She's the joy o' my heart
And the flower o' Dundee.
poem by William Topaz McGonagall
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Love
Love is the sunlight of the soul,
That, shining on the silken-tressèd head
Of her we love, around it seems to shed
A golden angel-aureole.
And all her ways seem sweeter ways
Than those of other women in that light:
She has no portion with the pallid night,
But is a part of all fair days.
Joy goes where she goes, and good dreams—
Her smile is tender as an old romance
Of Love that dies not, and her soft eye’s glance
Like sunshine set to music seems.
Queen of our fate is she, but crowned
With purple hearts-ease for her womanhood.
There is no place so poor where she has stood
But evermore is holy ground.
An angel from the heaven above
Would not be fair to us as she is fair:
She holds us in a mesh of silken hair,
This one sweet woman whom we love.
We pray thee, Love, our souls to steep
In dreams wherein thy myrtle flowereth;
So when the rose leaves shiver, feeling Death
Pass by, we may remain asleep:
Asleep, with poppies in our hands,
From all the world and all its cares apart—
Cheek close to cheek, heart beating against heart,
While through Life’s sandglass run the sands
poem by Victor James Daley
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Bonny Lassie O!
O the evening's for the fair, bonny lassie O!
To meet the cooler air and walk an angel there,
With the dark dishevelled hair,
Bonny lassie O!
The bloom's on the brere, bonny lassie O!
Oak apples on the tree; and wilt thou gang to see
The shed I've made for thee,
Bonny lassie O!
Tis agen the running brook, bonny lassie O!
In a grassy nook hard by, with a little patch of sky,
And a bush to keep us dry,
Bonny lassie O!
There's the daisy all the year, bonny lassie O!
There's the king-cup bright as gold, and the speedwell never cold,
And the arum leaves unrolled,
Bonny lassie O!
O meet me at the shed, bonny lassie O!
With a woodbine peeping in, and the roses like thy skin
Blushing, thy praise to win,
Bonny lassie O!
I will meet thee there at e'en, bonny lassie O!
When the bee sips in the bean, and grey willow branches lean,
And the moonbeam looks between,
Bonny lassie O!
poem by John Clare
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
River Shannon
Oh Shannon
I might be dreaming'
The stars fell down on the factory
The cathedrals repeating, the light receding
Bells on another day
Have you ever seen my face
Fast asleep and dreaming'?
Oh Shannon
The lightning' fell
There's an army down by the riverside
But I might be dreaming'
I can see that you don't believe me
And I might be dreaming'
If I dip into your water
Fall through my reflection
I will shadow myself anyway
Have you ever seen my face
Fast asleep and dreaming'?
And it don't seem right
That I don't get no sleep at night
What's the river gonna know about leaving'?
Oh Shannon
The soldiers are coming'
The guns are drumming' the night away
Rain, rain go away
Come again some other day
When I got time for believing'
Have you ever seen my face
Fast asleep and dreaming'?
Yeah! What is there left to believe in?!
Oh Shannon
I might be dreaming'
I might be wasting' my life away
listening' to you
Down on under the streetlight
You shudder and beat
The edge of the waterway
And I know if I had time
I might dive in your water
Lie right down in the evening rain
I just want this pain, pain to go away
Come again some other day
When I got time for bleeding'
Have you ever seen my face
Fast asleep and dreaming'?
And it don't seem right that I don't get no sleep at night
What's the river gonna know about leaving'?
Oh Shannon
I might be dreaming
song performed by by Counting Crows
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A Song
The Shape alone let others prize,
The Features of the Fair;
I look for Spirit in her Eyes,
And Meaning in her Air.
A Damask Cheek, an Iv'ry Arm,
Shall ne'er my Wishes win,
Give me an animated Form,
That speaks a Mind within.
A Face where awful Honour shines,
Where Sense and Sweetness move,
And Angel Innocence refines,
The Tenderness of Love.
These are the Soul of Beauty's frame,
Without whose vital Aid,
Unfinish'd all her Features seem,
And all her Roses dead.
But ah! where both their Charms unite,
How perfect is the View,
With ev'ry Image of Delight,
With Graces ever new.
Of Pow'r to charm the greatest Woe,
The wildest Rage controul,
Diffusing Mildness o'er the Brow,
And Rapture thro' the Soul.
Their Pow'r but faintly to express,
All Language must despair,
But go behold
Arpasia's
Face,
And read it perfect there.
poem by Mark Akenside
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Sleep! Sleep! Beauty Bright
Sleep! sleep! beauty bright,
Dreaming o'er the joys of night;
Sleep! sleep! in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.
Sweet Babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.
As thy softest limbs I feel,
Smiles as of the morning steal
O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
Where thy little heart does rest.
O! the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep.
When thy little heart does wake
Then the dreadful lightnings break,
From thy cheek and from thy eye,
O'er the youthful harvests nigh.
Infant wiles and infant smiles
Heaven and Earth of peace beguiles.
poem by William Blake
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A cradle song
Sleep Sleep beauty bright
Dreaming oer the joys of night
Sleep Sleep: in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit & weep
Sweet Babe in thy face
Soft desires I can trace
Secret joys & secret smiles
Little pretty infant wiles.
As thy softest limbs I feel
Smiles as of the morning steal
Oer thy cheek & oer thy breast
Where thy little heart does rest
O the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep
When thy little heart does wake
Then the dreadful lightnings break
From thy cheek & from thy eye
Oer the youthful harvests nigh
Infant wiles & infant smiles
Heaven & Earth of peace beguiles
poem by William Blake from Songs and Ballads (1793)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Useless!
Born I was all alone, and so I will die
Now I've done away with my dispel,
Never knew what was the motive to cry,
My being here today barely just to ply.
Seems that all to me; seldom it will be
The one in my dream i dreamt of; just smudge!
Going down fathoms below the sea.....
And know i nothing here in lies the grudge.
When just innocence dripped down me;
Their coarse, faulty, snout as it were made a grimace,
And after all of it were gone to leave;
Then innocence flourished on their face.
Come on now my serenity wake up!
Into this useless stuff I am caught in,
Whatever I do, it is hard to stop,
Let my fate have a sound new beginning! ...
poem by Tauheed Ashraf
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Cradle Song
Sleep, Sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming o'er the joys of night;
Sleep, Sleep; in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit & weep.
Sweet Babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.
As thy softest limbs I feel,
Smiles as of the morning steal
O’er thy cheek & o’er thy breast
Where thy little heart doth rest.
O, the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep.
When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful lightnings break.
From thy cheek & from thy eye
O'er the youthful harvests nigh
Infant wiles & infant smiles
Heaven & Earth of peace beguiles.
poem by William Blake (1794)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
Vote! | Copy!
Azure Eyed Angel
My azure eyed angel
With her I’m so vulnerable
And for once, I do not care
As long as she is near
My azure eyed angel
Never knew one so beautiful
And when she smiles, my heart, it drops
I pray this never stops
My azure eyed angel
I don’t know how she pierced my soul
Yet now she’s in, won’t ever leave
My faded memory
My azure eyed angel
My feelings, unmistakable
She’s taken from me, my sad heart
And gave it a new start
My azure eyed angel
Her mind is impenetrable
I wish she’d let me see inside
I want to see her cry
My azure eyed angel
It hurts to see her miserable
I want to hold her close to me
And gently hear her breathe
My azure eyed angel
Afraid to tell her how I’ve felt
Afraid of what could come of this
Afraid of finding bliss
poem by Ryan Holmes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Withered Snowdrops
THEY came in the early spring-days,
With the first refreshing showers
And I watched the growing beauty
Of the little drooping flowers.
They had no bright hues to charm me,
No gay painting to allure;
But they made me think of angels,
They were all so white and pure.
In the early morns I saw them,
Dew-drops clinging to each bell.
And the first glad sunbeam hasting
Just to kiss them ere they fell.
Daily grew their spotless beauty;
But I feared when chill winds blew
They were all too frail and tender,—
And alas! my fears were true.
One glad morn I went to see them
While the bright drops gemmed their snow,
And one angel flower was withered,
Its fair petals drooping low.
Its white sister's tears fell on it,
And the sunbeam sadly shone:
For its innocence was withered,
And its purity was gone.
Still I left it there: I could not
Tear it rudely from its place;
It might rise again, and summer
Might restore its vanished grace.
But my hopes grew weaker, weaker,
And my heart with grief was pained
When I knew it must be severed
From the innocence it stained.
I must take it from the pure ones:
Henceforth they must live apart.
But I could not cut my flow'ret—
My lost angel—from my heart.
Oft I think of that dead snowdrop,
Think with sorrow, when I meet,
Day by day. the poor lost flowers,—
Sullied snowdrops of the street.
They were pure once, loved and loving.
And there still lives good within.
Ah! speak gently to them: harsh words
Will not lead them from their sin.
They are not like withered flowers
That can never bloom again:
They can rise, bright angel snowdrops,
Purified from every stain.
poem by John Boyle O'Reilly
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Heavy Metal Drummer
I still miss those heavy metal bands
She used to go see on the landing in the summer
She fell in love with a drummer
She fell in love with the drummer
She fell in love
Shiny shiny pants and bleach blonde hair
A double kick drum by the river in the summer
She fell in love with a drummer
Another & another
She fell in love
I miss the innocence Ive known
Playing kiss covers
Beautiful & stoned
Unlock my body and move myself to dance
In long liquid flowing blowing glass
Classical music blasting
Thats still ringing in my ears
I still miss those heavy metal bands
She used to go see on the landing in the summer
She fell in love with a drummer
She fell in love with the drummer
She fell in love
I miss the innocence Ive known
Playing kiss covers
Beautiful & stoned
I miss the innocence Ive known
Playing kiss covers
Beautiful & stoned
Playing kiss covers
Beautiful & stoned
Playing kiss covers
Beautiful & stoned
song performed by by Wilco
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
My pain, my gain
Courage is sick; asleep
As the pains creep deep
Too tired and weak
I, a love freak?
Fell to your trick
Fell too quick
Not that my head is weak
My brain not sick
I am only sick
As hopes in you go bleak
And pains approach peak
As goodbyes click
But never 'sorry', dearie
Lest I become more weary
Tuck in your face
And maybe leave a trace
Let's share 'the grace'
And at a faster pace
No matter hard
No matter how sad
My only consolation
The guess dat you're not my destination
poem by Chris Tasie
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Daughters
How can you say that I didn't care
When I planted a cornfield awave in your hair,
Gifted your eyes of a deep sea blue
That you might see me, and I might see you!
I tinted your skin with the blush of a rose
And I fashioned a tilt to the tip of your nose,
But your lips I moulded from sweet honey-dew
So that you could kiss me, and I kiss you!
Four dainty fingers on each of your hands
And one with a ridge for a wedding band,
While you lisped and you chattered on long through the day
While I smiled and I listened - what more can I say?
I held you sheltered from the hail and the rain
And I tucked you up in a counterpane,
I watched and I whispered as you fell asleep:
‘There's a rosebud blooming on the angel's cheek! '
But the storm-clouds broke, as the storm-clouds will,
And my love was shattered, and my heart stood still,
You were snatched away when I wasn't there…
Now, how can you say that I didn't care?
Let me warn you fathers, and fathers to be
That it doesn't all end as you'd like it to be,
For your little girl grown will tear you apart,
And will leave you aching, as she breaks your heart!
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
At The Ambassadeurs
TO YVETTE GUILBERT
That was Yvette. The blithe Ambassadeurs
Glitters, this Sunday of the Fête des Fleurs;
Here are the flowers, too, living flowers that blow
A night or two before the odours go;
And all the flowers of all the city ways
Are laughing, with Yvette, this day of days.
Laugh, with Yvette? But I must first forget,
Before I laugh, that I have heard Yvette.
For the flowers fade before her: see, the light
Dies out of that poor cheek, and leaves it white;
And a chill shiver takes me as she sings
The pity of unpitied human things;
A woe beyond all weeping, tears that trace
The very wrinkles of the last grimace.
poem by Arthur Symons
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Forest Pool
LOST amid gloom and solitude,
A pool lies hidden in the wood,
A pool the autumn rain has made
Where flowers with their fair shadows played.
Bare as a beggar's board, the trees
Stand in the water to their knees;
The birds are mute, but far away
I hear a bloodhound's sullen bay.
Blue-eyed forget-me-nots that shook,
Kissed by a little laughing brook,
Kissed too by you with lips so red,
Float in the water drowned and dead.
And dead and drowned 'mid leaves that rot,
Our angel-eyed Forget-me-not,
The love of unforgotten years,
Floats corpse-like in a pool of tears
poem by Mathilde Blind
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Cradle Song
Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming in the joys of night;
Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.
Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.
As thy softest limbs I feel
Smiles as of the morning steal
O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
Where thy little heart doth rest.
O the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep!
When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful night shall break.
poem by William Blake
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Well's Secret
I KNEW it all my boyhood: in a lonesome valley meadow,
Like a dryad's mirror hidden by the wood's dim arches near;
Its eye flashed back the sunshine, and grew dark and sad with shadow;
And I loved its truthful depths where every pebble lay so clear.
I scooped my hand and drank it, and watched the sensate quiver
Of the rippling rings of silver as the beads of crystal fell;
I pressed the richer grasses from its little trickling river,
Till at last I knew, as friends know, every secret of the well.
But one day I stood beside it on a sudden, unexpected,
When the sun had crossed the valley and a shadow hid the place;
And I looked in the dark water—saw my pallid cheek reflected—
And beside it, looking upward, met an evil reptile face:
Looking upward, furtive, startled at the silent, swift intrusion;
Then it darted toward the grasses, and I saw not where it fled;
But I knew its eyes were on me, and the old-time sweet illusion
Of the pure and perfect symbol I had cherished there was dead.
O, the pain to know the perjury of seeming truth that blesses!
My soul was seared like sin to see the falsehood of the place;
And the innocence that mocked me, while in dim unseen recesses
There were lurking fouler secrets than the furtive reptile face.
And since then,—O, why the burden?—when the joyous faces greet me,
With their eyes of limpid innocence, and words devoid of art,
I cannot trust their seeming, but must ask what eyes would meet me
Could I look in sudden silence at the secrets of the heart!
poem by John Boyle O'Reilly
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Fireflies - Owl City
vs.1. You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep.
Cause they'd fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You'd think me rude but I would just stand and stare.
Chorus: I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turned slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
Cause everything is never as it seems.
vs.2. Cause I'd get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance.
A foxtrot above my head
A sockhop beneath my bed
A disco ball is just hanging by a thread.
(Chorus)
Leave my door open just a crack.
(Please take me away from here)
Cause I feel like such a insomniac.
(Please take me away from here)
Why do I tire from counting sheep?
(Please take me away from here)
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep?
To ten million fireflies
I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell.
But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar.
(Chorus) x 2
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep,
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams.
poem by Rebecca Ryan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Fiddle Riddle
Once stood a man on my face
Ooh yeah, on my face
Gobbled him up cause my taste
Leaves nothing to waste
Hear the riddle that I say
Hear the riddle that I say
What is fair is fair
That is fair and square
To me
Piano it marks the good pace
Ooh yeah, the good pace
Dont know if its right, but I like the bass
So turn up the bass
Hear the fiddles as they play
Hear the fiddles as they play
What is fair is fair
And the guitar player
No metal, no brick, was no trace
Oh, no, was no trace
But machines moved on and still chased
No particular place
Hear the riddle that I say
Hear the riddle that I say
What is fair is fair
That is fair and square
To me
What is fair is fair
That is fair and square
To me
song performed by by Frank Black
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!