Page:Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics.djvu/44

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xlvi

A SEA DIRGE

Full fathom five thy father lies:Of his bones are coral made;Those are pearls that were his eyes:Nothing of him that doth fade,But doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange;Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:Hark! now I hear them,—Ding, dong, Bell.W. Shakespeare


xlvii

A LAND DIRGE

Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,Since o’er shady groves they hoverAnd with leaves and flowers do coverThe friendless bodies of unburied men.Call unto his funeral doleThe ant, the field-mouse, and the moleTo rear him hillocks that shall keep him warmAnd (when gay tombs are robb’d) sustain no harm;But keep the wolf far thence, that’s foe to men,For with his nails he’ll dig them up again.J. Webster


xlviii

POST MORTEM

If Thou survive my well-contented dayWhen that churl Death my bones with dust shall cover,And shalt by fortune once more re-surveyThese poor rude lines of thy deceaséd lover;
Compare them with the bettering of the time,And though they be outstripp’d by every pen,
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