Home for Love
Because the earth is vast and dark And wet and cold; Because man's heart wants warmth and light Lest it grow old;
Therefore the house was built--wall, roof And brick and beam, By a lost hand following the lost Delight of a dream,
And room and stair show how that hand Groped in eager doubt, With needless weight of teasing timber Matching his thought--
Such fond superfluousness of strength In wall and wood As his half-wise, half-fearful eye Deemed only good.
His brain he built into the house, Laboured his bones; He burnt his heart into the brick And red hearth-stones.
It is his blood that makes the house Still warm, safe, bright, Honest as aim and eye and hand, As clean, as light.
Because the earth is vast and dark The house was built-- Now with another heart and fire To be fulfilled.