Somnambulism’s Sweet Illusion

From the house Sophia floated,
O’er grass in dew drops coated,
Gripped in dreaming, under starlight,
Stiff but supple through the twilight.

Lunar gleams so softly glowing,
Set upon her form unknowing,
Roving through the garden sleepy,
In a trance prodigious creepy.

Lost within this woeful pattern,
Drawn by Pluto, lulled by Saturn,
Bare feet roving meadows spacious,
In a mode so strange audacious.

Complex tasks by night attempting,
Sleep’s beguilement not preventing,
Efforts to converse with others,
Sometimes talking to her brothers.

Once upon the grass seen dancing,
Under moonlight’s soft romancing,
Gleeful movement though in slumber,
Curtseys too in countless number.

Who could say what spirits called her,
Ghosts that somehow had enthralled her,
Guiding her to leave her bedding,
Fearless into darkness treading.

Spectres from a sleep dimension,
Rousing her to weird suspension,
In a reverie spellbinding,
Through a ribbon walk unwinding.

Blissful potent as in pleasure,
Body set in straying leisure,
Borne to yonder vale in silence,
Always calm, devoid of violence.

Once her brother intervening,
Thinking it was sore demeaning,
This possession of his sister,
Under starlight’s opal glister.

But the habit still persisted,
Into fields serenely misted,
A somnambulist’s illusion,
Sober movement in delusion.

ADL