Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/214

 144. The Phœnix and the Turtle

Let the bird of loudest lay On the sole Arabian tree, Herald sad and trumpet be, To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou shrieking harbinger, Foul precurrer of the fiend, Augur of the fever's end, To this troop come thou not near.

From this session interdict Every fowl of tyrant wing Save the eagle, feather'd king: Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white That defunctive music can, Be the death-divining swan, Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou, treble-dated crow, That thy sable gender mak'st With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st, 'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence:— Love and constancy is dead; Phœnix and the turtle fled In a mutual flame from hence.

So they loved, as love in twain Had the essence but in one; Two distincts, division none; Number there in love was slain.

can] knows.