The Evening-Watch: A Dialogue Poem by Henry Vaughan

BODY

1 Farewell! I go to sleep; but when
2 The day-star springs, I'll wake again.

SOUL

3 Go, sleep in peace; and when thou liest
4 Unnumber'd in thy dust, when all this frame
5 Is but one dram, and what thou now descriest
6 In sev'ral parts shall want a name,
7 Then may his peace be with thee, and each dust
8 Writ in his book, who ne'er betray'd man's trust!

BODY

9 Amen! but hark, ere we two stray
10 How many hours dost think 'till day?

SOUL

11 Ah go; th'art weak, and sleepy. Heav'n
12 Is a plain watch, and without figures winds
13 All ages up; who drew this circle, even
14 He fills it; days and hours are blinds.
15 Yet this take with thee. The last gasp of time
16 Is thy first breath, and man's eternal prime.