Between 1763 and 1794 Thomas Warren published, through differing publishers, an annual collection of catches, canons and glees, under the aegis of the Catch Club. This item was published in the eleventh such collection.

Lyrics: John Milton

Yet once more O ye laurels, and once more,
Ye myrtles brown with ivy never sere.
I come to pick your berries harsh and crude,
And with forced fingers rude
Shatter your leaves before the mell'wing year.
Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear
Compels me to disturb your season due;
For Lycidas is dead; dead ere his prime,
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.
Who would not sing for Lycidas? He knew
Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme,
He must not float upon his wat'ry bier
Unwept, and welter to the parching wind
Without the meed of some melodious tear.