Why feedest thou on husks so coarse and rude?

I could not be content with angels’ food.

How camest thou companion for 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 sojourn here.

Harsh tyrant’s slave who made thee, once so free?

A father’s rule too heavy seemed to me.

What sordid rags hang 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 an 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.