The Poetry of Sleep: “Sleep is the best meditation”

Written by John Keats and Algernon Charles Swinburne

Narrated by Richard Mitchley, David Shaw-Parker and Ghizela Rowe

Sleep. That most mysterious of times. The unconscious hours.

Everyone needs it. Whether it’s the recommended eight hours, forty winks, cat naps, power naps or other shades of blissful slumber.

Sleep offers a respite from the rigors and challenges of the day. A chance for the brain to process what has happened and bring rest and recuperation before the cycle of daytime activity begins again.

Also, perchance to dream or, if we are unlucky, the visitation of nightmares.

But for some people sleep does not come easy. These can be wakeful hours of frustration or tedium where closing the eyes does not bring the closing of the mind and the slumber so keenly wanted.

Part of the problem, in this increasingly frenetic 24/7 world is that we seem reluctant or unable to switch off enough to recuperate; we might miss something. But slumbered hours bring gains in health that far outweigh transitory loss.

Our poets from Kipling and Swinburne through Hafiz, James Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe and a pillowful of others explore the wish to rest, to close the eyes and reside in the land of nod.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Copyright Group
• Release date: Jul 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839676352

John Keats

Born in London in 1795, John Keats is one of the most popular of the Romantic poets of the 19th century. During his short life his work failed to achieve literary acclaim, but after his death in 1821 his literary reputation steadily gained pace, inspiring many subsequent poets and students alike.