![Ecclesiastical Sonnets - Part I. - XVI - Persuasion, By: William Wordsworth](https://i0.wp.com/poetrycatalog.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Ecclesiastical-Sonnets-Part-I-XVI-Persuasion-By-William-Wordsworth.png?resize=750%2C420&ssl=1)
“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!”