| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Thomas Wade. 1805–1875 |
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| 676. The Half-asleep |
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| O FOR the mighty wakening that aroused | |
| The old-time Prophets to their missions high; | |
| And to blind Homer's inward sunlike eye | |
| Show'd the heart's universe where he caroused | |
| Radiantly; the Fishers poor unhoused, | 5 |
| And sent them forth to preach divinity; | |
| And made our Milton his great dark defy, | |
| To the light of one immortal theme espoused! | |
| But half asleep are those now most awake; | |
| And save calm-thoughted Wordsworth, we have none | 10 |
| Who for eternity put time at stake, | |
| And hold a constant course as doth the sun: | |
| We yield but drops that no deep thirstings slake; | |
| And feebly cease ere we have well begun. | |
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