ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XVI. PERSUASION
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
“MAN’S life is like a Sparrow, mighty King! “That–while at banquet with your Chiefs you sit “Housed near a blazing fire–is seen to flit “Safe from the wintry tempest. Fluttering, “Here did it enter; there, on hasty wing, “Flies out, and passes on from cold to cold; “But whence it came we know not, nor behold “Whither it goes. Even such, that transient Thing, “The human Soul; not utterly unknown “While in the Body lodged, her warm abode; 10 “But from what world She came, what woe or weal “On her departure waits, no tongue hath shown; “This mystery if the Stranger can reveal, “His be a welcome cordially bestowed!”