And can you sing poor birds? do you not see
A mourning countenance on every tree?
Doth not each stone in this sad fabrick, tell
What sable thoughts within these walls do dwell?
Since she who added sweetnesse to the spring,
To Summer glory, she whose care did bring
More fruit then Autumne, and from whom it was
That Icy-Winter undiscern’d did passe,
Hath left these habitations, my-thinks you
Should leave henceforth your warbling sonnets too,
Yet sing, but change your note and joyne with me,
Tune your loud whistles to an Elegie.
May 10, 1645
From: Wyvill, Christopher, Certaine serious thoughts which at severall times & upon sundry occasions have stollen themselves into verse and now into the publike view from the author [Wyvill coat of arms] Esquire ; together w[i]th a chronologicall table denoeting [sic] the names of such princes as ruled the neighbor states and were con-temporary to our English kings, observeing throughout ye number of yeares w[hi]ch every one of them reigned, 2004, Text Creation Partnership: Ann Arbor, Michigan and Oxford, pp. 34-35.
(http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A67233.0001.001)
Date: 1645
By: Christopher Wyvill (16??-1711)