The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887)Early Rising
“G
So Sancho Panza said, and so say I:
And bless him, also, that he didn’t keep
His great discovery to himself; nor try
To make it—as the lucky fellow might—
A close monopoly by patent right!
(I really can’t avoid the iteration);
But blast the man, with curses loud and deep,
Whate’er the rascal’s name, or age, or station,
Who first invented, and went round advising,
That artificial cut-off—Early Rising!
Observes some solemn, sentimental owl;
Maxims like these are very cheaply said;
But, ere you make yourself a fool or fowl,
Pray just inquire about his rise and fall,
And whether larks have any beds at all!
Is in the morning, if I reason right;
And he who cannot keep his precious head
Upon his pillow till it’s fairly light,
And so enjoy his forty morning winks,
Is up to knavery; or else—he drinks!
It was a glorious thing to rise in season;
But then he said it—lying—in his bed,
At ten o’clock
He wrote so charmingly. The simple fact is
His preaching wasn’t sanctioned by his practice.
Awake to duty, and awake to truth—
But when, alas! a nice review we take
Of our best deeds and days, we find, in sooth,
The hours that leave the slightest cause to weep
Are those we passed in childhood or asleep!
For the soft visions of the gentle night;
And free, at last, from mortal care or guile,
To live as only in the angels’ sight,
In sleep’s sweet realm so cozily shut in,
Where, at the worst, we only dream of sin!
I like the lad who, when his father thought
To clip his morning nap by hackneyed phrase
Of vagrant worm by early songster caught,
Cried, “Served him right!—it’s not at all surprising;
The worm was punished, sir, for early rising!”