Shadows (Howe)/The Poet's Door

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THE POET'S DOOR
WITHIN the circle of the light
We sat alone, and all the room
Beyond the lamp was full of night
 And hung about with shadowed gloom.

With love and music in his voice
 He read me from his lyric page
The sweetest numbers of his choice,
 Songs of a blended youth and age.

Then telling forth another's song,
 Music and love rang doubly clear;
The same soft cadence on his tongue
 Brought distant minstrelsy so near.

And to the doorway, strange and dim,
 I thought a mystic presence came
 ​With glowing mien, and gazed at him
 That read, and gently spoke his name,

And said, "Hail, fellow soul of man,
 For here thy kindred voice at last
Fulfils the song I once began;"
 Then back into the darkness passed.

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