XII. William Hunnis

THESE heares of age are messengers,

Which bidde me fast, repent, and pray:

They be of death the harbingers,

That dooth prepare and dresse the way.

Wherefore I ioie that you may see

Upon my head such heares to be.

They be the lines that lead the length,

How farre my race is for to runne:

They say my youth is fled with strength,

And how olde age is weake begunne.

The which I feele, and you may see

Upon my head such lines to be.

They be the stringes of sober sound,

Whose musicke is harmonicall:

Their tunes declare a time from ground

I came, and how thereto I shall.

Wherefore I ioie that you may see

Upon my head such stringes to be.

God graunt to those that white heares haue

No worse them take then I haue ment:

That after they be layde in graue,

Their soules may ioie their lives well spent.

God graunt likewise, that you may see

Upon your head such heares to be.