One Night, when I was Sleeping

One Night, when I was Sleeping written by William Henry Davies

From "Later Days", 1925

Link to further information

One night, when I was sleeping all alone,
Close to a forest, far from any town,
Up with a cry I started — what was that
Which shook me here, as though I were a rat?
I met a black man in the morning light,
Who said - and fear had made him ashen white -
'Where were you when this earth of ours
Shook terribly in the early hours?'
And shall the Himalayas and the Alps
Wriggle like worms, when the Earth gulps
Half the Pacific in one breath?
Think of the death
Of countless people -
When the bells in each surviving steeple
Toll for the dead in every shaken land,
Without a touch from any mortal hand;
Until this Earth lies down again to rest,
And sleeps without a conscience in her breast.
Is not the fear of this sufficient then
That War must cease and Friendship come to men?

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.