Away the sluggard’s bed! away
  The slumber of the soul’s decay! 
  Ye chaste and just and temperate,
  Watch!  I am standing at the gate.

  After the sun hath risen red
  ’Tis late for men to scorn their bed,
  Unless a portion of the night
  They seize for labours of the light.

  Mark ye, what time the dawn draws nigh,
  How ’neath the eaves the swallows cry? 
  Know that by true similitude
  Their notes our Judge’s voice prelude.

  When hid by shades of dark malign
  On beds of softness we recline,
  They call us forth with music clear
  Warning us that the day is near.

  When breezes bright of orient morn
  With rosy hues the heavens adorn,
  They cheer with hope of gladdening light
  The hearts that spend in toil their might.

  Though sleep be but a passing guest
  ’Tis type of death’s perpetual rest: 
  Our sins are as a ghastly night,
  And seal with slumbers deep our sight.

  But from the wide roof of the sky
  Christ’s voice peals forth with urgent cry,
  Calling our sleep-bound hearts to rise
  And greet the dawn with wakeful eyes.

  He bids us fear lest sensual ease
  Unto life’s end the spirit seize
  And in the tomb of shame us bind,
  Till we are to the true light blind.

  ’Tis said that baleful spirits roam
  Abroad beneath the dark’s vast dome;
  But, when the cock crows, take their flight
  Sudden dispersed in sore affright.

  For the foul votaries of the night
  Abhor the coming of the light,
  And shamed before salvation’s grace
  The hosts of darkness hide their face.

  They know the cock doth prophesy
  Of Hope’s long-promised morning sky,
  When comes the Majesty Divine
  Upon awakened worlds to shine.

  The Lord to Peter once foretold
  What meaning that shrill strain should hold,
  How he before cock-crow would lie
  And thrice his Master dear deny.

  For ’tis a law that sin is done
  Before the herald of the sun
  To humankind the dawn proclaims
  And with his cry the sinner shames.

  Then wept he bitter tears aghast
  That from his lips the words had passed,
  Though guileless he his soul possessed
  And faith still reigned within his breast.

  Nor ever reckless word he said
  Thereafter, by his tongue betrayed,
  But at the cock’s familiar cry
  Humbled he turned from vanity.

  Therefore it is we hold to-day
  That, as the world in stillness lay,
  What hour the cock doth greet the skies,
  Christ from deep Hades did arise.

  Lo! then the bands of death were burst,
  Shattered the sway of hell accurst: 
  Then did the Day’s superior might
  Swiftly dispel the hosts of Night.

  Now let base deeds to silence fall,
  Black thoughts be stilled beyond recall: 
  Now let sin’s opiate spell retire
  To that deep sleep it doth inspire.