C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Eva L. Ogden
His Way
L
And the door was opened wide;
There wasn’t a thing to hinder,
And they needed him much inside:
But he rattled his quiver and said with a sigh,—
“Can I enter an open door? Not I!
Not I! Not I!”
And he found a great broad stair;
There wasn’t a thing to hinder,
And he might have mounted there:
But he fluttered his wings, and said with a sigh,—
“Can I plod up a staircase? No, not I!
Not I! Not I!”
Love came to the shore of the ocean,
And saw far over the strand
An inaccessible fortress
On a seagirt island stand.
“Who cares for an ocean?” he gayly cried,
And his rainbow wings were quickly plied:
“Not I! Not I!”
Where window and door were barred;
There was none who would give him entrance,
Though he knocked there long and hard.
Then, “Who cares for a bolt?” said the saucy elf;
And straightway the warder was Love himself!
“Not I! Not I!”