A DIRGE

by: John Webster

      ALL 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
      The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole,
      To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm,
      And (when gay tombs are robbed) sustain no harm;
      But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,
      For with his nails he'll dig them up again.

'A Dirge' was originally published in the The White Devil (1612).

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