The Wide Door into Sorrow
Stands open night and day.
With head held high and dancing feet
I pass it on my way.
I never tread within it,
I never turn to see
The Wide Door into Sorrow.
It cannot frighten me.
The Narrow Doors to Sorrow
Are secret, still, and low:
Swift tongues of dusk that spoil the sun
Before I even know.
My dancing feet are frozen.
I stare. I can but see.
The Narrow Doors to Sorrow
They stop the heart in me.
-- Oh, stranger than my midnights
Of loneliness and strife
The Doors that let the dark leap in
Across my sunny life!
"I Pass a Lighted Window". [Clement Wood]
I pass a lighted window
And a closed door --
And I am not troubled
Any more.
Though the road is murky,
I am not afraid,
For a shadow passes
On the lighted shade.
Once I knew the sesame
To the closed door;
Now I shall not enter
Any more;
Nor will people passing
By the lit place,
See our shadows marry
In a gray embrace.
Strange a passing shadow
Has a long spell!
What can matter, knowing
She does well?
How can life annoy me
Any more?
Life: a lighted window
And a closed door.