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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Folding the Flocks

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

VI. Animate Nature

Folding the Flocks

Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) and John Fletcher (1579–1625)

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 dew-drops, how they kiss

Every little flower that is;

Hanging on their velvet heads,

Like a string 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,

And hover o’er the smiling face

Of these pastures; where they come,

Striking dead both bud and bloom.

Therefore from such danger lock

Every one his lovèd 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;

So shall you good shepherds prove,

And deserve your master’s love.

Now, good night! may sweetest slumbers

And soft silence fall in numbers

On your eyelids. So farewell:

Thus I end my evening knell.