2. Upon the Lark and the Fowler
hou simple bird, what makes thee here to play? Look, there's the fowler, pray thee come away. Dost not behold the net? Look there, 'tis spread, Venture a little further, thou art dead.
Is there not room enough in all the field, For thee to play in, but thou needs must yield To the deceitful glitt'ring of a glass, Between nets placed, to bring thy death to pass?
Bird, if thou art so much for dazzling light, Look, there's the sun above thee; dart upright Thy nature is to soar up to the sky, Why wilt thou come down to the nets and die?
Heed not the fowler's tempting flatt'ring call; This whistle, he enchanteth birds withal: What though thou see'st a live bird in his net. She's there, because from hence she cannot get.
Look how he tempteth thee with his decoy, That he may rob thee of thy life, thy joy, Come, pray thee bird, I pray thee come away, Why shouldst thou to this net become a prey?
Hadst thou not wings, or were thy feathers pull'd, Or wast thou blind, or fast asleep wer't lull'd: The case would somewhat alter, but for thee, Thy eyes are ope', and thou hast wings to flee.
Remember that thy song is in thy rise, Not in thy fall; earth's not thy paradise. Keep up aloft then, let thy circuits be Above, where birds from fowler's nets are free.
Comparison.
This fowler is an emblem of the devil, His nets and whistle, figures of all evil. His glass an emblem is of sinful pleasure, Decoying such, who reckon sin a treasure.
This simple lark's a shadow of a saint, Under allurings, ready now to faint. What you have read, a needful warning is, Design'd to shew the soul its share of bliss, And how it may this fowler's net escape, And not commit upon itself this rape.