Sidney’s speaker is exhausted, desperate for escape, and addresses Sleep as a person who could grant mercy. He calls Sleep the “knot of peace,” a remedy that ties together calm, and lists how it levels hardship: wealth for the poor, release for the prisoner, a fair judge between high and low. Behind the praise aches a real battle with despair; his mind is torn by inner warfare. So he strikes a bargain. He offers a soft bed, silence, darkness, a rose garland, his tired head. But the real temptation comes last: if nothing else stirs Sleep’s heavy grace, the image of his beloved Stella will burn brighter inside him than anywhere else. It’s a tender, mischievous bribe, revealing that what keeps him awake is also what he hopes to dream of. The mood is intimate and yearning, a blend of weariness and bittersweet love.
Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot Of Peace — Summary
Come, Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace, The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe, The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release, Th' indifferent judge between the high and low; With shield of proof shield me from out the press Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw! O make in me those civil wars to cease!— I will good tribute pay if thou do so. Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed, A chamber deaf of noise and blind of light, A rosy garland, and a weary head; And if these things, as being thine in right, Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me, Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see.