| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| When We Are All Asleep |
| | | Cosmo Monkhouse (b. 1840) |
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| WHEN He returns, and finds the world so drear, | |
| All sleeping, young and old, unfair and fair, | |
| Will he stoop down and whisper in each ear, | |
| “Awaken!” or for pity’s sake forbear, | |
| Saying, “How shall I meet their frozen stare | 5 |
| Of wonder, and their eyes so full of fear? | |
| How shall I comfort them in their despair, | |
| If they cry out, ‘Too late! let us sleep here’?” | |
| Perchance He will not wake us up, but when | |
| He sees us look so happy in our rest, | 10 |
| Will murmur, “Poor dead women and dead men! | |
| Dire was their doom, and weary was their quest. | |
| Wherefore awake them into life again? | |
| Let them sleep on untroubled—it is best.” | |
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