Classic Poem

Kyrie Eleison!
For Philip Sparrow's soul
Set in our bead roll
Let us now whisper
A Pater Noster
Lauda anima mea Dominum.
To weep with me look that ye come
All manner of birds in your kind,
See none be left behind,
Some to sing and some to say,
Some to weep and some to pray;
The goldfinch, the wagtail,
The jangling jay to rail,
The flecked pie to chatter
Of this dolorous matter;
And Robin redbreast
He shall be the priest
The requiem masses to sing,
Loftly warbeling
With help of the red sparrow
And the chattering swallow
This herse for to hallow,
And also the mad coot,
With a bald face to toot,
The raven called rolfe
His plaining to solfe;
The partridge, the quail,
The plover with us to wail;
The woodhack that singeth churr
Hoarsely as he had the murre,
The lusty chanting nightingale,
The popinjay to tell her tale
That tooteth oft in a glass
Shall read the Gospel at Mass;
The mavis with her whistle
She rede there th' Epistle,
With peewit, the lapwing
The versicles shall sing;
The bittern with his bump,
The crane with his trump,
The duck and the drake
Shall watch at this wake.

Also the noble falcon
With the gyrfalcon,
The tircel gentle,
They shall mourn soft and still
In their amice of gray.
The Sacre with them shall say
Dirige for Philip's soul,
The goshawk shall have a roll
The choristers to control,
The lanners and martins
Shall stand in their morning gowns,
The hobby and the musket
The censers and the cross shall set;
The kestrel in all this work
Shall be the holy-water clerk.
And now the dark cloudy night
Chaseth away Phoebus bright,
Taking his course toward the west;
God send my sparrow's soul good rest.