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.