








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 himself in the 
words of Hl. Smith ?— 
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. 



































