Book 2 — SOMETHING CHILDISH, BUT VERY NATURAL[313:1]
Reading edition
SOMETHING CHILDISH, BUT VERY NATURAL[313:1]
WRITTEN IN GERMANY
If I had but two little wings And were a little feathery bird, To you I'd fly, my dear! But thoughts like these are idle things, And I stay here. 5 But in my sleep to you I fly: I'm always with you in my sleep! The world is all one's own. But then one wakes, and where am I? All, all alone. 10 Sleep stays not, though a monarch bids: So I love to wake ere break of day: For though my sleep be gone, Yet while 'tis dark, one shuts one's lids, And still dreams on. 15
April 23, 1799.
FOOTNOTES:
LINENOTES:
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3
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you] you MS. Letter, 1799.
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6
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you] you MS. Letter, 1799.