THREE steps there are our human life must climb. <br />The first is Force. <br />The savage struggled to it from the slime <br />And still it is our last, ashamed recourse. <br />Above that jagged stretch of red-veined stone <br />Is marble Law, <br />Carven with long endeavor, monotone <br />Of patient hammers, not yet free from flaw. <br />Three steps there are our human life must climb. <br />The last is Love, <br />Wrought from such starry element sublime <br />As touches the White Rose and Mystic Dove. <br />Poor world, that stumbles up with many a trip, <br />A child that clings <br />To the great Hand, whose lifting guardianship <br />Quickens in wayward feet the dream of wings!<br /><br />Katharine Lee Bates<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/three-steps-2/
