Holding the distance up before his face
And standing under the peculiar tree,
He seeks the hostile unfamiliar place,
It is the strangeness that he tries to see
Of lands where he will not be asked to stay;
And fights with all his powers to be the same.
The One who loves Another far away,
And has a home, and wears his father’s name.
Yet he and his are always the Expected:
The harbours touch him as he leaves the steamer,
The Soft, the Sweet, the Easily- Accepted;
The cities hold his feeling like a fan;
And crowds make room for him without a murmur,
As the earth has patience with the life of man.