Some love with love desiring to possess, A crimson passion like a scarlet flow'r; There is a better love, all tenderness: It is the longing for the quiet hour -- The shades drawn down, the fire of beech alight, The simple comfort of the inglenook, Shut in the home, shut out the dark of night, The knitting wife, the husband with his book -- And there they sit recounting all the day: The little triumphs of the busy mart, The things the sleeping baby said at play, These are the tendrils binding heart to heart -- Some tale from that great world he labors in, He labors in that he may garner this, Some household care, some message from her kin, And then the lights put out, the good-night kiss -- The shutters made secure, and turned the key, And then the fields of sleep to wander through -- This, wives and husbands, marriage ought to be, God grant that this is what it is to you. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOAL by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE POET SPEAKS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TWENTY-FOUR HOKKU ON A MODERN THEME by AMY LOWELL I PAY MY DEBT FOR LAFAYETTE AND ROCHAMBEAU' by EDGAR LEE MASTERS DOMESDAY BOOK: LOVERIDGE CHASE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |