Cockcrow

The antients divided the night into different watches; the last of which was called cockcrow: and in consequence of this they kept a cock in their Tirat, or Towers, to give notice of the dawn. ❋ Jacob Bryant (1759)

Early this morning I got some Conservative literature stuffed through the door, no doubt pushed through the letterbox by someone in a rush to return to his vault before cockcrow. ❋ Unknown (2009)

He, who neither drank nor smoked, who never wasted the weight of his arms in an embrace, nor the touch of his lips a second longer than the most perfunctory of kisses, who was invariably up before cockcrow and asleep ere the kerosene lamp had a tenth emptied itself, and who never thought to die, was dead even more quickly than Brother Hal and Prince Lilolilo. ❋ Unknown (2010)

Everyone in it seemed to stir into immediate life at cockcrow, and the farm then spun and whirred like a complicated bit of clockwork until after sunset, when one by one the cogs and wheels that made it run began to fall away, rolling off into the dark to seek supper and bed, only to reappear like magic in their proper places in the morning. ❋ Unknown (2010)

It is not at all strange that I should use the word “cockcrow,” for, like most of the others here, I have only a literary knowledge of prisons. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Silent Poem backroad leafmold stonewall chipmunk underbrush grapevine woodchuck shadblow woodsmoke cowbarn honeysuckle woodpile sawhorse bucksaw outhouse wellsweep backdoor flagstone bulkhead buttermilk candlestick ragrug firedog brownbread hilltop outcrop cowbell buttercup whetstone thunderstorm pitchfork steeplebush gristmill millstone cornmeal waterwheel watercress buckwheat firefly jewelweed gravestone groundpine windbreak bedrock weathercock snowfall starlight cockcrow ❋ Bruce Schauble (2008)

A visage would loom up at a party, or a literary reference would be on the tip of my tongue, and my recognition of the first or recollection of the second would dissolve like a ghost at cockcrow. ❋ Hitchens, Christopher (2008)

(Also, in the pale cockcrow hours of the morning, the image of a snow-white tiger with a blood-splattered coat proved a nice and almost fashionable juxtaposition to paint-splattered stoles and my imagination just started to run with it.) ❋ Unknown (2008)

When he wakes at cockcrow the revellers are nearly all asleep. ❋ Unknown (2006)

But Mrs. Newcome had been beforehand with him, and had visited the Chevalier de Blois almost at cockcrow. ❋ Unknown (2006)

But to him that good hour of cockcrow, and the changes of the dawn, had brought panic, and lasting doubt, and such terror as he still shook to think of. ❋ Unknown (2005)

He was able to dedicate the rest of his time to research: relaxing in his orchards in the countryside, going to fashionable dinner parties and the chariot races, drinking the finest wines known to humanity, visiting the theatre, staying out until the early morning when “the cockcrow shatters poor workers dreams” and arranging dangerous liaisons. ❋ Sam Jordison (2005)

Joan Greenway, set up in gold letters, because we must take the homeward way at cockcrow of the morning. ❋ Richard Doddridge (2004)

"I'd better catch him early, or he'll be down the mountain again before cockcrow," said the Master of the Mountain. ❋ Unknown (2004)

After a conversazione of two hours my visitors depart, and we lose no time — for we must rise at cockcrow — in spreading our mats round the common room. ❋ Unknown (2003)

The rich ranged themselves in line along the Mappalian district at cockcrow, and tucking up their robes practised themselves in handling the pike. ❋ Unknown (2003)

Everything quite all right, and he began persuading her; and she should have kept him talking till cockcrow, but she got frightened, just got frightened and hid her face in her hands. ❋ Unknown (2003)