I HAVE been sleeping all my years —
How well I know it — deep asleep!
I have dreamed pleasures, toil and tears,
And loves I could — or would — not keep!
There is one thing my sleep could break —
If any touched me I would wake!

I have been sleeping all my years.
Around me many came and went;
Their voices lightly brushed my ears,
Sooth tones, or tones of discontent,
Pleading for love's or pity's sake —
If any touched me I would wake!

I have been sleeping all my years.
I dreamed I was not loath to do,
To dare high things among my peers,
To mount where fewer grow the few;
Yes, oft I dreamed the heights to take —
If any touched me I would wake!

I have been sleeping all my years
I dreamed that others, too, have slept,
Although where shifting fortune steers,
They turned and turned, the pace they kept!
In all no meaning could I make —
If any touched me I would wake!

I have been sleeping all my years.
But, as in dreams past turn of night,
The finger of the morn appears,
I have one dream that, catching light,
Leaves the dim spirit less opaque —
If any touched me I would wake!

I have been sleeping all my years —
Yet no! Not if this dream is true,
That somewhere (be it past the spheres!)
Some part of me sleep never knew:
One Touch the House of Life will shake —
One Touch — and all of me shall wake!