For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come

This is Edward Hughes’ symbolist work, Night with Her Train of Stars and Her Great Gift of Sleep. I’ve always loved it and since he is a Victorian artist who took the theme and title from a great Victorian poet, William Ernest Henley, I decided I needed to own it. I can’t hang anything on the ancient plaster walls here but I can tape it up over my bed, and hope that the Great Gift of Sleep is bestowed upon me on a more regular basis.

Henley may be best known for his poem “Invictus” which, to the consternation of those who love it, was chosen by terrorist Timothy McVeigh to be read as his last words before he was executed for the Oklahoma City bombing.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.


The poem that inspired Hughes’ painting is titled “In Memoriam: Margaritae Sorori”:

A late lark twitters from the quiet skies;
And from the west,
Where the sun, his day's work ended,
Lingers as in content,
There falls on the old, gray city
An influence luminous and serene,
A shining peace.

The smoke ascends
In a rosy-and-golden haze. The spires
Shine, and are changed. In the valley,
Shadows rise. The lark sings on. The sun,
Closing his benediction,
Sinks, and the darkening air
Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night--
Night with her train of stars
And her great gift of sleep.

So be my passing!
My task accomplished and the long day done,
My wages taken, and in my heart
Some late lark singing,
Let me be gathered to the quiet west,
The sundown splendid and serene,
Death.

Oooh, did we need that last stanza? Well, Henley is simply expressing a concept embraced by most religions and many philosophers -- that of death as a kind of sleep or transition. As he accepted the cup of hemlock Socrates chided his followers for weeping, reminding them that a philosopher welcomes death. (I wasn't surprised to see Dumbledore, a Socratic character, tell Harry Potter that death is the next great adventure.) “Teach me to live, that I may dread the grave as little as my bed.” I also see this sentiment in a saying that I can’t attribute to a particular source except that it is an indigenous society; but whether Native American, African, or which I can’t remember: “I am running as fast as I can toward the edge of the world.”

What does “Margaritae Sorori” mean? I’ve seen some speculation online about ‘margarita” meaning pearl and being a reference to The Tempest; but I think it’s more likely to refer to Henley’s only child, a daughter named Margaret who died when she was five; and “sorori” meaning “sister.” I’m guessing it means “To the memory of Margaret and her sisters” but I’m not sure I’ve got the cases right – I’ll kick this one up to my Latin instructor.