a setting of the poem written by Robert Herrick (d.1674), personally I don't think the text is as straight forward as historical tradition would lead you to believe. But that is the great thing about poetry, sometimes we can make our own sense of it.
CHRISTMAS-EVE, ANOTHER CEREMONY.
by Robert Herrick
COME guard this night the Christmas-Pie,
That the thief, though ne'er so sly,
With his flesh-hooks, don't come nigh
To catch it
From him, who all alone sits there,
Having his eyes still in his ear,
And a deal of nightly fear
To watch it.
