THE WHISPERING STAIR
Did you ever lie in the warm dark silence,When the air seemed waking with budding flowers,And the stars were lords of the mystic hours, And the moon was a round rose, white and rare?Did you ever listen with quickened breathFor a thing which spelled to you life and death— Love's footfall on the stair?
Did you ever open your arms to hold him?Feel night knew only the gods and love,And a world shut out, lest it disapprove, Was only dust of a stupid past,Some buried city of cast-off creedsThat had never a grace for poor human needs, While those arms could hold him fast?
Did you feel the stir of the bygone ages,When strong men captured, and women clung?Did some doom cry out with a muffled tongue To warn you, "Dear is the price you pay?"Did you laugh to the sob of that warning note,With your lips so near to his pulsing throat, That all else seemed swept away?
