THE PRODIGAL.
Why feedest thou on husks so coarse and rude?
I could not be content with angels' food.
How camest thou companion to the swine?
I loathed the courts of heaven, the choir divine.
Who bade thee crouch in hovel dark and drear?
I left a palace wide to hide me here.
Harsh tyrant's slave who made thee, once so free?
A father's rule too heavy seemed to me.
What sordid rags float round thee on the breeze?
I laid immortal robes aside for these.
An exile through the world who bade thee roam?
None, but I wearied of a happy home.
Why must thou dweller in a desert be?
A garden seemed not fair enough to me.
Why sue a beggar at the mean world's door?
To live on God's large bounty seemed so poor.
What has thy forehead so to earthward brought?
To lift it higher than the stars I thought.
