The home: its work and influence

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

I hear a deep voice through uneasy dreaming,

A deep, soft, tender, soul-beguiling voice;

A lulling voice that bids the dreams remain,

That calms my restlessness and dulls my pain,

That thrills and fills and holds me till in seeming

There is no other sound on earth—no choice.

"Home!" says the deep voice, "Home!" and softly singing

Brings me a sense of safety unsurpassed;

So old! so old! The piles above the wave—

The shelter of the stone-blocked, shadowy cave—