The Prodigal Poem by Richard Chenebix Trench

I.
Why feedest thou on husks so coarse and rude?
I could not be content with ancels' food.

II.
How camest thou companion for the swine?
I loathed the courts of heaven, the choir divine.

III.
Who bade thee crouch in hovel dark and drear?
I left a palace wide to sojourn here.

IV.
Harsh tyrant's slave who made thee, once so free?
A father's rule too heavy seemed to me.

V.
What sordid rags hang round thee on the breeze?
I laid immortal robes aside for these.

VI.
An exile through the world who bade thee roam?
None, but I wearied of an happy home.

VII.
Why must thou dweller in a desert be?
A garden seemed not fair enough to me.

VIII.
Why sue a beggar at the mean world's door?
To live on God's large bounty seemed so poor.

IX.
What has thy forehead so to earthward brought?
To lift it higher than the stars I thought.