| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Wood Paths by the Sea | | By Mary Eastwood Knevels |
| | | WHO has gone before me, padding down the firm white sand? | |
| Who has set first foot on the virginal soil? | |
| All around is the delicate lacing of branches: | |
| Leaf fits leaf, and vine links itself to vine; | |
| The moss fringes the boughs on the edges of silence. | 5 |
| How shall I enter the stillness that the wind fears? | |
| Who shall follow me into the tranquil gray of the unnoted pines, | |
| Or watch me, when I go past the notched oak bushes? | |
| Who shall wonder when the path circling the tiny grove | |
| Marches to the edge of the world, or dies in a moss cushion? | 10 |
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| Who shall follow me when I have made a path, | |
| And where shall I dare to make one? | |
| He who makes a path plunges a sword into the Eternal. | |
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| What is your will, doubter, hesitator? | |
| Will you not do what others have done? | 15 |
| Be fearless, penetrate—there will be many to follow; | |
| And, if not, the end of the path is silence. | | | | |
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