"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; "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!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON A VOLUME OF SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY by GEORGE SANTAYANA MEMORY by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH RAIN-SONGS by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT SONNET: 16. TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL, MAY 1652 by JOHN MILTON JUST A-RIDIN'! by ELWOOD ADAMS |