Call for the robin redbreast and the wren, Since o’er shady groves they hover And with leaves and flowers do cover The friendless bodies of unburied men. Call unto his funeral dole The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole, To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm And (when gay tombs are robbed) sustain no harm; But keep the wolf far thence, that’s foe to men, For with his nails he’ll dig them up again.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Call for the robin redbreast and the wren, Since o’er shady groves they hover And with leaves and flowers do cover The friendless bodies of unburied men. Call unto his funeral dole The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole, To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm And (when gay tombs are robbed) sustain no harm; But keep the wolf far thence, that’s foe to men, For with his nails he’ll dig them up again." in the context of "John Webster, The White Devil (1612), Act V, scene 4, Cornelia’s Dirge
• Cornelia, who has gone distracted over the murder of her son, tells her attendants that her grandmother, when she heard the bell toll, was wont to sing this dirge to her lute." to mean that wisdom is timeless.