33. Wanderings

{75}
ERE yet I left home's youthful shrine,
    My heart and hope were stored
Where first I caught the rays divine,
    And drank the Eternal Word.

I went afar; the world unroll'd
    Her many-pictured page;
I stored the marvels which she told,
    And trusted to her gage.

Her pleasures quaff'd, I sought awhile
    The scenes I prized before;
But parent's praise and sister's smile
    Stirr'd my cold heart no more. {76}

So ever sear, so ever cloy
    Earth's favours as they fade;
Since Adam lost for one fierce joy
    His Eden's sacred shade.

Off the Lizard
.
December 8, 1832.

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Newman Reader — Works of John Henry Newman
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