THE bread is all baked, The embers are raked, 'Tis midnight by canticleer's first crowing; Let's kindly carouse, Whilst a-top of the house The cats fall out in the height of their wooing. Time, whilst their hour-glass does run out, This flowing glass shall go about. Stay, stay, the nurse is waked, the child does cry No song so ancient is, as lullaby: The cradle's rock'd, the child's hushed again, Then, hey for the maids! and ho for the men! Now every one advance his glass, Then all at once together clash: Experienced lovers know This clashing does but show, That, as in musick, so in love, must be Some discord to make up a harmony. Sing, sing; when crickets sing, why should not we? The crickets were merry before us: They sung us thanks ere we made 'em a fire; They taught us to sing in a chorus: The chimney is their church, the oven is their choir. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WANDERER: 2. IN FRANCE: THE CHESSBOARD by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE CAVALIER'S SONG by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL MANASSAS [JULY 21, 1861] by CATHERINE ANNE WARFIELD THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by MARIA ABDY |