Ecclesiastical Sonnets: XVI. Persuasion

“Man’s life is like a Sparrow, mighty King!
“That, stealing in while by the fire you sit
“Housed with rejoicing Friends, is seen to flit
“Safe from the storm, in comfort tarrying.
“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 shewn;
“This mystery if the Stranger can reveal,
“His be a welcome cordially bestowed!”