Robert Herrick. Upon the Death of His Sparrow. An Elegy.

UPON THE DEATH OF HIS SPARROW.
AN ELEGY.
by Robert Herrick

WHY do not all fresh maids appear
To work love's sampler only here,
Where spring-time smiles throughout the year ?
Are not here rosebuds, pinks, all flowers
Nature begets by th' sun and showers,
Met in one hearse-cloth to o'erspread
The body of the under-dead ?
Phile, the late dead, the late dead dear,
O ! may no eye distil a tear
For you once lost, who weep not here !
Had Lesbia, too-too kind, but known
This sparrow, she had scorn'd her own :
And for this dead which under lies
Wept out her heart, as well as eyes.
But, endless peace, sit here and keep
My Phil the time he has to sleep ;
And thousand virgins come and weep
To make these flowery carpets show
Fresh as their blood, and ever grow,
Till passengers shall spend their doom,
Not Virgil's gnat had such a tomb.

Phil, otherwise Philip or Phip, was a pet name for a
sparrow. [A.J. Note: cf. Skelton's "Phyllyp Sparowe"]
Virgil's gnat, the Culex attributed to Virgil.

Source:
Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol I.
Alfred Pollard, ed.
London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891. 128-129.

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