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Home  »  Parnassus  »  Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

Song from Gypsies’ Metamorphoses

Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

THE OWL is abroad, the bat, the toad,

And so is the cat-a-mountain;

The ant and the mole sit both in a hole;

And frog peeps out o’ the fountain;

The dogs they bay, and the timbrels play;

The spindle now is a-turning;

The moon it is red, and the stars are fled;

But all the sky is a-burning.

THE FAERY beam upon you,

And the stars to glister on you,

A moon of light

In the noon of night,

Till the fire-drake hath o’ergone you,

The wheel of Fortune guide you,

The Boy with the bow beside you

Run aye in the way, till the bird of day,

And the luckier lot betide you.