Poems By Richard Chenevix Trench: New ed |
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A PASSAGE FROM ST. AUGUSTINE. |
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224
A PASSAGE FROM ST. AUGUSTINE.
Wert thou a wanderer on a foreign strand,Who yet couldst only in thy native land
Find peace or joy or any blessëd thing—
And, thy sore travail to an end to bring,
Shouldst thither now determine to return,
Since in all other places doomed to mourn—
But having need of carriages for this,
To bring thee to thy country and true bliss,
What if the pleasant motion which they made,
With the fair prospects on each side displayed,
Should so attract thee, thou at last wert fain
The things for use lent only, to retain;
Entangled so with their perverse delight,
That from thy country alienated quite,
And its true joys whereto thou first didst tend,
And loathing to approach thy journey's end,
Thou shouldst be now a pilgrim with the fear
Lest thy long pilgrimage's close were near—
If this way it fared with thee, we might say,
Thou didst man's life unto the life pourtray.
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