Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THREE STEPS by KATHARINE LEE BATES

Poet Analysis

First Line: THREE STEPS THERE ARE OUR HUMAN LIFE MUST CLIMB
Last Line: AS TOUCHES THE WHITE ROSE AND MYSTIC DOVE.
Subject(s): HUMAN BEHAVIOR; CONDUCT OF LIFE; HUMAN NATURE;
Three steps there are our human life must climb.
The first is Force.
The savage struggled to it from the slime
And still it is our last, ashamed recourse.

Above that jagged stretch of red-veined stone
Is marble Law,
Carven with long endeavor, monotone
Of patient hammers, not yet free from flaw.

Three steps there are our human life must climb.
The last is Love,
Wrought from such starry element sublime
As touches the White Rose and Mystic Dove.



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