The hardest things we make are wearing away,

Rusting and fading, loosening, crumbling down,

Everywhere, all day long, and every day,

With frost, and relentless time, and rain and sun.

An edge of stone chips off, the steel goes dull,

The girdered bridge is racked, the wheel is split.

The eternal stone, we say; the iron will;

This love, we say, on deep foundations set.

But go build a tower as tall as hope;

Go sharpen steel as keen as hate; set up

A cornerstone of greed, and these will last.

And after the ultimate hour of time is past,

A bridge as long as love and steep and sure

From human heart to heart will still endure.