I learned -- at least -- what Home could be --

I learned -- at least -- what Home could be --
How ignorant I had been
Of pretty ways of Covenant --
How awkward at the Hymn

Round our new Fireside -- but for this --
This pattern -- of the Way --
Whose Memory drowns me, like the Dip
Of a Celestial Sea --

What Mornings in our Garden -- guessed --
What Bees -- for us -- to hum --
With only Birds to interrupt
The Ripple of our Theme --

And Task for Both --
When Play be done --
Your Problem -- of the Brain --
And mine -- some foolisher effect --
A Ruffle -- or a Tune --

The Afternoons -- Together spent --
And Twilight -- in the Lanes --
Some ministry to poorer lives --
Seen poorest -- thro' our gains --

And then Return -- and Night -- and Home --

And then away to You to pass --
A new -- diviner -- care --
Till Sunrise take us back to Scene --
Transmuted -- Vivider --

This seems a Home --
And Home is not --
But what that Place could be --
Afflicts me -- as a Setting Sun --
Where Dawn -- knows how to be --