| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | II. Rest
When we are all asleep | | By Robert Buchanan (1841–1901) |
| | | WHEN He returns, and finds all sleeping here— | |
| Some old, some young, some fair, and some not 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 woebegone? | |
| How shall I comfort them in their despair, | |
| If they cry out “too late! let us sleep on”?’ | |
| 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 unto life again? | |
| Let them sleep on untroubled—it is best.’ | | | | |
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