The Confirmation

by Edwin Muir

Yes, yours, my love is the right human face

I in my mind had waited for this long,

seeing that false and searching for the true,

Then found you as a traveller finds a place

of welcome suddenly amid the wrong.

Valleys and rocks and twisting roads. But you,

What shall I call you ? A fountain in a waste

A well of water in a country dry,

or anything that's honest and good, an eye

That makes the whole world bright.

Your open heart, simple with giving, gives the primal deed,

The first good world, the blossom, the seed,

The hearth, the steadfast land, the wandering sea,

Not beatiful or rare in every part,

But like yourself, as they were meant to be.