Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved,—still warm,—too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?

 This is a biblical reference to humans being formed from ‘clay’. 
 Genesis 2:7 – 
 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 
 The narrator questions whether the creation of humankind was ‘futile’ because of the recurring inevitability of war and suffering. 
 John Milton in  Paradise Lost  has Adam questioning God: 
 “Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee  From darkness to promote me?”