Bede, anyone?

The Adon's Hall was open. Through it
Swallows darted. The soul flies through life.
Osfameron in his mind's eye knew it.
The bird's life is not the man's life.

-- Diana Wynne Jones, Cart and Cwidder (The Dalemark Quartet 1), 1975.

p. 9 in the Harper Trophy 2001 edition