Slumber Songs
I
Sleep,
little
eyes
That
brim
with
childish
tears
amid
thy
play,
Be
comforted!
No
grief
of
night
can
weigh
Against
the
joys
that
throng
thy
coming
day.
Sleep,
little
heart!
There
is
no
place
in
Slumberland
for
tears:
Life
soon
enough
will
bring
its
chilling
fears
And
sorrows
that
will
dim
the
after
years.
Sleep,
little
heart!
II
Ah,
little
eyes
Dead
blossoms
of
a
springtime
long
ago,
That
life's
storm
crushed
and
left
to
lie
below
The
benediction
of
the
falling
snow!
Sleep,
little
heart
That
ceased
so
long
ago
its
frantic
beat!
The
years
that
come
and
go
with
silent
feet
Have
naught
to
tell
save
this
—
that
rest
is
sweet.
Dear
little
heart.
John McCrae
John McCrae born in Guelph, Ontario, Canadian poet, soldier, and physician John McCrae earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Toronto, where he received the Gold Medal. McCrae’s well-known poem “In Flanders Fields” memorializes the April 1915 battle in Belgium’s Ypres salient. For 17 days, McCrae tended those injured in the battle. January 28, 1918, at the age of 45. McCrae was buried with full military honors in Wimereux Cemetery near Boulogne, France. His family home in Guelph is preserved as a museum, and the main street in Wimereux is now named Rue McCrae.