256 
SLEEP OF THE HEART. 
WHITE POPPY. 
There poppies white, and violets, 
Alcippus on the altar sets 
Of quiet sleep ; and weaves a crown 
_ To bring the gentle godhead down. 
FRACASTORO. 
An insipid oil is expressed from the grains 
of the white poppy, which calms the senses 
and provokes sleep. Would not the unhappy 
lover, who dreads that the object of his love 
has no reciprocal feeling, thus express him¬ 
self in the words of H. Smith 1 — 
O gentle sleep! 
Scatter thy drowsiest poppies from above; 
And in new dreams, not soon to vanish, bless 
My senses. 
Yea, gladly would he become insensible to 
the agonies of unrequited love. 
The palace of Somnus, who presided over 
sleep, was represented as a dark cave, into 
which the sun’s rays never penetrated ; at the 
entrance grew poppies and other somniferous 
herbs; the Dreams watched over his couch, 
attended by Morpheus, his prime minister, 
holding a vase in one hand, and grasping 
poppies in the other. 
