Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/290

264 or fine demeanor, and by dance and song,

And skill in letters, every fancy shaped

Fair expectations; nor, when to the World's

Capacious field forth went the Adventurer, there

Were he and his attainments overlooked,

Or scantily rewarded; but all hopes,

Cherished for him, he suffered to depart,

Like blighted buds; or clouds that mimicked Land

Before the Sailor's eye; or diamond drops

That sparkling decked the morning grass; or aught

That was attractive—and hath ceased to be!

—Yet, when this Prodigal returned, the rites

Of joyful greeting were on him bestowed,

Who, by humiliation undeterred,

Sought for his weariness a place of rest

Within his Father's gates.—Whence came He?—clothed

In tattered garb, from hovels where abides

Necessity, the stationary Host

Of vagrant Poverty; from rifted barns

Where no one dwells but the wide-staring Owl

And the Owl's Prey; none permanently house

But many harbour; from these Haunts, to which

He had descended from the proud Saloon,