English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 188. Call for the Robin-Redbreast |
| | | John Webster (1580(?)–1625(?)) |
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| CALL for the robin-redbreast and the wren, | |
| Since o’er shady groves they hover | |
| And with leaves and flowers do cover | |
| The friendless bodies of unburied men. | |
| Call unto his funeral dole | 5 |
| The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole | |
| To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm | |
| And (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. | 10 |
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