On that strange oracle to look.

Day after day I would ascend
The staircase in that large old house,
And still and timorous as a mouse
I sat and made the book my friend.

I saw the birth of seas and skies,
The first sweet woman, first brave man;
I saw how morning light began,
How faded--over Paradise.

I stood with the first Arab boy;
I saw the mother and the child,
Of Oriental vision wild,
Laugh by the well for utter joy.

I saw the youth go forth at morn,
A traveler to the Syrian land,
And in the lonely evening stand
An exile weary and forlorn.

I saw him by the roadside lay
His sunken head upon a stone,
And while he slumbered, still and lone,
A dream fell on him, fair as day.

I saw a golden ladder reach
From earth to heaven among the stars,
And up and down its gleaming bars