{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/her-lovers-step",
 "title": "Her Lover’s Step",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 43,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Step, step, step, ’tis her lover’s walk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She knows his step as well’s his talk;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He is the favorite of her choice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So his step’s familiar as his voice.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Step, step, step, she now is wed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it is now her husband’s tread;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His homeward step it cheers her life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For she is a kind faithful wife.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But he the husband and yet lover,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His steps at last do cease forever;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she doth soon hear the tread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of men who do bear out the dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her heart it now doth throb with pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though she knows sorrow is but vain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For him she never can recall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And no more hear his footsteps fall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But still she hopes he yet will come",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And visit her in their old home;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But time approaches, she must die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her husband’s footsteps she hears nigh.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Step, step, step, we ne’er shall part,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I hear the echo in my heart;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now happiness dispels the gloom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Radiant with joy my face doth bloom.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Pain and suffering all are past,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She joyous cried he’s come at last;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And soon she breathes out her last breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He guides her through the vale of death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}