Meditações - chamando a noite

Advice to Shepherds

Shepherds all and maidens fair,
Fold your flocks up, for the air
’Gins to thicken, and the sun
Already his great course hath run.
See the dewdrops how they kiss
Every little flower that is,
Hanging on their velvet heads
Like a rope of crystal beads.
See the heavy clouds low falling
And bright Hesperus down calling
The dead night from underground,
At whose rising mists unsound
Damps and vapors fly apace,
Hovering o’er the wanton face
Of these pastures, where they come
Striking dead doth bud and bloom.
Therefore from such danger lock
Everyone his lovéd flock,
And let your dogs lie loose without,
Lest the wolf come as a scout
From the mountain, and ere day
Bear a lamb or kid away,
Or the crafty thievish fox
Break upon your simple flocks.
To secure yourself from these
Be not too secure in ease;
Let one eye his watches keep
Whilst the t’ other eye doth sleep.
So you shall good shepherds prove
And for ever hold the love
Of our great god. Sweetest slumbers
And soft silence fall in numbers
On your eyelids: so farewell,
Thus I end my evening’s knell.

John Fletcher