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| THESE heares of age are messengers, | |
| Which bidde me fast, repent, and pray: | |
| They be of death the harbingers, | |
| That dooth prepare and dresse the way. | |
| Wherefore I ioie that you may see | 5 |
| Upon my head such heares to be. | |
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| They be the lines that lead the length, | |
| How farre my race is for to runne: | |
| They say my youth is fled with strength, | |
| And how olde age is weake begunne. | 10 |
| The which I feele, and you may see | |
| Upon my head such lines to be. | |
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| They be the stringes of sober sound, | |
| Whose musicke is harmonicall: | |
| Their tunes declare a time from ground | 15 |
| I came, and how thereto I shall. | |
| Wherefore I ioie that you may see | |
| Upon my head such stringes to be. | |
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| God graunt to those that white heares haue | |
| No worse them take then I haue ment: | 20 |
| That after they be layde in graue, | |
| Their soules may ioie their lives well spent. | |
| God graunt likewise, that you may see | |
| Upon your head such heares to be. | |
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