Cock-Crow

Bell-man of night, if I about shall go
For to deny my Master, do thou crow!
Thou stop'st Saint Peter in the midst of sin;
Stay me, by crowing, ere I do begin;
Better it is, premonish'd, for to shun
A sin, than fall to weeping when 'tis done.

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick was a 17th-century English lyric poet and cleric. He is known for his book of poems, "Hesperides," which includes the carpe diem poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time." His works are noted for their clarity, simplicity, and musical quality. Herrick was also a vicar of Dean Prior in Devon, despite being ejected during the English Civil War and later reinstated.

Robert Herrick

English

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Hymn At Cock-Crow (Hymnus Ad Galli Cantum)

Hymn At Cock-Crow (Hymnus Ad Galli Cantum)


        Ales diei nuntius
    lucem propinquam praecinit;
    nos excitator mentium
    iam Christus ad vitam vocat.

        Auferte, clamat, lectulos
    aegros, soporos, desides:
    castique recti ac sobrii
    vigilate, iam sum proximus.

        Post solis ortum fulgidi
    serum est cubile spernere,
    ni parte noctis addita
    tempus labori adieceris.

        Vox ista, qua strepunt aves
    stantes sub ipso culmine
    paulo ante quam lux emicet,
    nostri figura est iudicis.

        Tectos tenebris horridis
    stratisque opertos segnibus
    suadet quietem linquere
    iam iamque venturo die.

        Ut, cum coruscis flatibus
    aurora...

Aurelius Clemens Prudentius

The Bellman

From noise of scare-fires rest ye free,
From murders Benedicite.
From all mischances that may fright
Your pleasing slumbers in the night :
Mercy secure ye all, and keep
The goblin from ye while ye sleep.
Past one o'clock, and almost two,
My masters all, good-day to you.

Robert Herrick

The Bell-Man

Along the dark and silent night,
With my lantern and my light
And the tinkling of my bell,
Thus I walk, and this I tell:
Death and dreadfulness call on
To the general session;
To whose dismal bar, we there
All accounts must come to clear:
Scores of sins we've made here many;
Wiped out few, God knows, if any.
Rise, ye debtors, then, and fall
To make payment, while I call:
Ponder this, when I am gone:
By the clock 'tis almost One.

Robert Herrick

The Song At Cock-Crow

The first time that Peter denied his Lord
He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the cord,
But followed far off to see what they would do,
Till the cock crew, till the cock crew,
After Gethsemane, till the cock crew!

The first time that Peter denied his Lord
'Twas only a maid in the palace who heard,
As he sat by the fire and warmed himself through.
Then the cock crew! Then the cock crew!
("Though also art one of them.") Then the cock crew!

The first time that Peter denied his Lord
He had neither the Throne, nor the Keys nor the Sword,
A poor silly fisherman, what could he do,
When the cock crew, when the cock crew,
But weep for his wickedness when the cock crew?

The next time that Peter denied his Lord
He was Fisher of Men, as foretold b...

Rudyard

A Song At Cock-Crow

The first time that Peter denied his Lord
He shrank from the cudgel, the scourge and the cord,
But followed far off to see what they would do,
Till the cock crew,till the cock crew,
After Gethsemane, till the cock crew!

The first time that Peter denied his Lord
'Twas only a maid in the palace who heard,
As he sat by the fire and warmed himself through.
Then the cock crew! Then the cock crew!
("Though also art one of them.") Then the cock crew!

The first time that Peter denied his Lord
He had neither the Throne, nor the Keys nor the Sword,
A poor silly fisherman, what could he do,
When the cock crew,when the cock crew,
But weep for his wickedness when the cock crew?
..    .    .    .    .

The next time that Peter denied his Lord
He was Fi...

Rudyard

Upon Cock.

Cock calls his wife his Hen: when Cock goes to't,
Cock treads his Hen, but treads her underfoot.

Robert Herrick