Lyric Poem · Dreams & Sleep

Song To Diana

by Ben Jonson

Reading room

1Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,

2Now the sun is laid to sleep,

3Seated in thy silver chair

4State in wonted manner keep:

5Hesperus entreats thy light,

6Goddess excellently bright.

7Earth, let not thy envious shade

8Dare itself to interpose;

9Cynthia's shining orb was made

10Heaven to clear when day did close:

11Bless us then with wished sight,

12Goddess excellently bright.

13Lay thy bow of pearl apart,

14And thy crystal-shining quiver;

15Give unto the flying hart

16Space to breathe, how short soever:

17Thou that mak'st a day of night,

18Goddess excellently bright.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“Song To Diana” by Ben Jonson — quilloak.com/poems/song-to-diana

Quick facts

Poem: Song To Diana
Poet: Ben Jonson
Length: 18 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Dreams & Sleep, Peace

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 18 lines · 3 sestets
Line length: Mostly 7-syllable lines.
Refrain: “Goddess excellently bright.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Ben Jonson1572–1637
Source record: PoetryDBSong To Diana by ben-jonson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 0e719df2b3a2f98f…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policy Report a text or rights issue

Lyric Poem Dreams & Sleep Peace

Keep reading

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron · 1814

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and bright

18 lines · lyric

Love's Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1819

The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever

16 lines · lyric

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

More poems about dreams →