Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Second Book of Modern Verse. 1922.

The Narrow Doors

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!