An hen, though such tame creatures mostly are,
Yet once received a water-bird in care;
Its mother-instinct drew the fledgling still
To the wide ocean floods to roam at will;
Its timid nurse, upon the other hand,
Sought evermore to lead it back to land.
O Man! thy mother, Heaven, thy nurse is Earth,
And thou of both wert nurtured from thy birth;
From thy true mother comes thine impulse free
To launch forth boldly upon being’s sea;