Some poetic lines do not merely sit on the page but rise to meet us at the very point where our lived experience and inner longing intersect. Wordsworth’s reflection—“The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be / Bound each to each by natural piety”—belongs to this rare category of verse. A retired bureaucrat who has lived a life of responsibility, discipline, and public service, finds these lines offering an invitation: an invitation not to withdraw from life, but to return to the deep sources that once made life meaningful, spontaneous, and quietly joyous.

In the decades spent in the service of the State, life often gets shaped by structure, expectations, and results. Decisions shape destinies, institutions rely on one’s clarity, and time is rationed by urgency. Yet W

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