Her Lover’s Step

Step, step, step, ’tis her lover’s walk,
She knows his step as well’s his talk;
He is the favorite of her choice,
So his step’s familiar as his voice.

Step, step, step, she now is wed,
And it is now her husband’s tread;
His homeward step it cheers her life,
For she is a kind faithful wife.

But he the husband and yet lover,
His steps at last do cease forever;
And she doth soon hear the tread
Of men who do bear out the dead.

Her heart it now doth throb with pain,
Though she knows sorrow is but vain;
For him she never can recall,
And no more hear his footsteps fall.

But still she hopes he yet will come
And visit her in their old home;
But time approaches, she must die,
Her husband’s footsteps she hears nigh.

Step, step, step, we ne’er shall part,
I hear the echo in my heart;
Now happiness dispels the gloom,
Radiant with joy my face doth bloom.

Pain and suffering all are past,
She joyous cried he’s come at last;
And soon she breathes out her last breath,
He guides her through the vale of death.

Where this text comes from

First published in Poems of James McIntyre (1889). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry, poetry.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L28.

Cite this poem

James McIntyre (1828?–1906). “Her Lover’s Step.” First published in Poems of James McIntyre (1889). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/james-mcintyre/her-lovers-step/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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