The Awakening

LUCIE HASKELL HILL

First came the hungriness:
The costly foods and wines which had been his,
So long as he had wherewithal to pay,
Were now denied him; and the tasteless husks,
Left by the swine which he was set to tend,
He dared not take to still the hunger-pang.
(Could one sink lower than to dwell with swine?)

Then came remembrance:
For, after all, the husks were unfit food
For him who was the scion of a king!
He thought him of his father's palaces,
And of the difference between the fare
Of prodigals and the full-savored food
That graced the tables in his father's realm.

And then he mused:
My father's servants have enough to eat,
While I have nothing! From his eyes there fell
The veil which had obscured his boyish gaze:
He saw the pleasures which had tempted him—
As empty as the husks the swine had left,
That could not nourish him, nor satisfy.

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