 The Old Testament reading, which is mostly concerned with Creation and fallen man's role in it, hinges on the multiple uses of "fish and fowl" in scripture (the words do not occur together in the
New Testament), which typically indicate "the totality of the created world".A New Testament reading can take the imagery of spring, a frequent occurrence in Middle English religious poetry, as a reference to Easter.In that reading, which has plenty of complications, the "foweles" might be a reference to Christ's words in the "Foxes have holes" passage of Matthew 8