The Evening-Watch: A Dialogue

BODY

Farewell! I go to sleep; but when

The day-star springs, I’ll wake again.

SOUL

Go, sleep in peace; and when thou liest

Unnumber’d in thy dust, when all this frame

Is but one dram, and what thou now descriest

In sev’ral parts shall want a name,

Then may his peace be with thee, and each dust

Writ in his book, who ne’er betray’d man’s trust!

BODY

Amen! but hark, ere we two stray

How many hours dost think ’till day?

SOUL

Ah go; th’art weak, and sleepy. Heav’n

Is a plain watch, and without figures winds

All ages up; who drew this circle, even

He fills it; days and hours are blinds.

Yet this take with thee. The last gasp of time

Is thy first breath, and man’s eternal prime.