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TO WILLIAM BEDELL by JOSEPH HALL

First Line: WILLY, THY RHYTHMS SO SWEETLY RUN AND RISE
Last Line: TO FOLLOW HIM, WHILE OTHERS FOLLOW THEE.
Subject(s): BOOKS; SHEPHERDS & SHEPHERDESSES; SINGING & SINGERS; READING; SONGS;

@3WILLY,@1 thy Rhythms so sweetly run and rise,
And answer rightly to thy tunefull Reed,
That (so mought both our fleecy Cares succeed)
I ween (nor is it any vaine Device)
That @3COLLIN@1 dying, his Immortal Muse
Into thy Learned Breast did late infuse.

Thine be his Verse, not his Reward be Thine.
Ah me! That after unbeseeming Care,
And secret Want, which bred his last misfare,
His Relicks dear obscurely tombed lien
Under unwritten Stones, that who goes by
Cannot once Read, @3Lo here doth COLLIN lie.@1

Not all the Shepherds of his Calender
Yet (Learned Shepherds all, and seen in Song)
Theire deepest Layes, and Ditties deep among,
More lofty Song did ever make or leer,
Then this of Thine. Sing on, thy Task shall be
To follow him, while others follow Thee.



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