| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910. | | | | Celia, Sleeping or Singing | | By Thomas Stanley (1625–1678) |
| | | ROSES, in breathing forth their scent, | |
| Or stars their borrowed ornament; | |
| Nymphs in the watery sphere that move, | |
| Or angels in their orbs above; | |
| The winged chariot of the light, | 5 |
| Or the slow silent wheels of night; | |
| The shade which from the swifter sun | |
| Doth in a circular motion run, | |
| Or souls that their eternal rest do keep, | |
| Make far more noise than Celia’s breath in sleep. | 10 |
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| But if the angel which inspires | |
| This subtle frame with active fires, | |
| Should mould this breath to words, and those | |
| Into harmony dispose, | |
| The music of this heavenly sphere | 15 |
| Would steal each soul out at the ear, | |
| And into plants and stones infuse | |
| A life that cherubin would choose, | |
| And with new powers invert the laws of fate: | |
| Kill those that live, and dead things animate. | 20 | | | |
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