Kilcolman. A life at Court could never have suited
him, however irksome at times his isolation in Ireland
may have seemed. When his friends wondered at his
returning unto

This barrein soyle,
Where cold and care and penury do dwell,
Here to keep sheepe with hunger and with toyle,

he made the answer that he,

Whose former dayes
Had in rude fields bene altogether spent,
Durst not adventure such unknowen wayes,
Nor trust the guile of fortunes blandishment;
But rather chose back to my sheepe to tourne,
Whose utmost hardnesse I before had tryde,
Then, having learnd repentance late, to mourne
Emongst those wretches which I there descryde.

That life, with all its intrigues and self-seekings and
scandals, had no charms for him. Once more settled in
his home, he wrote an account of his recent absence
from it, which he entitled _Colin Clouts Come Home
Again_. This poem was not published till 1595; but,
whatever additions were subsequently made to it, there
can be no doubt it was originally written immediately
after his return to Ireland. Sitting in the quiet to
which he was but now restored, he reviewed the splendid
scenes he had lately witnessed; he recounted the famous