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William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

Green Golden Door

GREEN golden door, swing in, swing in!

Fanning the life a man must live,

Echoes and airs and minstrelsies,

Love and hope that he called his,

Fear and hurt and a man’s own sin

Casting them forth and sucking them in,

Green golden door, swing out, swing out!

Green golden door, swing in, swing in!

Show me the youth that will not die,

Tell me the dream that has not waked,

Seek me the heart that never ached,

Speak me the truth men will not doubt!

Green golden door, swing out, swing out!

Green golden door, swing in, swing out!

Long is the wailing of man’s breath,

Short is the wail of death.

The New Republic