[ { "title": "Men Are Heaven's Piers", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "MEN are Heaven's piers; they evermore", "Unwearying bear the skyey floor;", "Man's theatre they bear with ease,", "Unfrowning cariatides!", "I, for my wife, the sun uphold,", "Or, dozing, strike the seasons cold.", "She, on her side, in fairy-wise", "Deals in diviner mysteries,", "By spells to make the fuel burn", "And keep the parlour warm, to turn", "Water to wine, and stones to bread,", "By her unconquered hero-head.", "A naked Adam, naked Eve,", "Alone the primal bower we weave;", "Sequestered in the seas of life,", "A Crusoe couple, man and wife,", "With all our good, with all our will,", "Our unfrequented isle we fill;", "And victor in day's petty wars,", "Each for the other lights the stars.", "Come then, my Eve, and to and fro", "Let us about our garden go;", "And, grateful-hearted, hand in hand", "Revisit all our tillage land,", "And marvel at our strange estate,", "For hooded ruin at the gate", "Sits watchful, and the angels fear", "To see us tread so boldly here.", "Meanwhile, my Eve, with flower and grass", "Our perishable days we pass;", "Far more the thorn observe - and see", "How our enormous sins go free -", "Nor less admire, beside the rose,", "How far a little virtue goes." ], "linecount": "34" }, { "title": "Flower God, God Of The Spring", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,", "Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,", "Here I wander in April", "Cold, grey-headed; and still to my", "Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,", "Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;", "Spring, flower-planter in meadows,", "Child-conductor in willowy", "Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:", "Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:", "O child, happy are children!", "She still smiles on their innocence,", "She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,", "Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:", "Thus one cunning in music", "Wakes old chords in the memory:", "Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.", "One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal", "Green - one more, and my bosom", "Feels new life with an ecstasy." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Envoy For \"A Child's Garden Of Verses\"", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "WHETHER upon the garden seat", "You lounge with your uplifted feet", "Under the May's whole Heaven of blue;", "Or whether on the sofa you,", "No grown up person being by,", "Do some soft corner occupy;", "Take you this volume in your hands", "And enter into other lands,", "For lo! (as children feign) suppose", "You, hunting in the garden rows,", "Or in the lumbered attic, or", "The cellar - a nail-studded door", "And dark, descending stairway found", "That led to kingdoms underground:", "There standing, you should hear with ease", "Strange birds a-singing, or the trees", "Swing in big robber woods, or bells", "On many fairy citadels:", "", "There passing through (a step or so -", "Neither mamma nor nurse need know!)", "From your nice nurseries you would pass,", "Like Alice through the Looking-Glass", "Or Gerda following Little Ray,", "To wondrous countries far away.", "Well, and just so this volume can", "Transport each little maid or man", "Presto from where they live away", "Where other children used to play.", "As from the house your mother sees", "You playing round the garden trees,", "So you may see if you but look", "Through the windows of this book", "Another child far, far away", "And in another garden play.", "But do not think you can at all,", "By knocking on the window, call", "That child to hear you. He intent", "Is still on his play-business bent.", "He does not hear, he will not look,", "Nor yet be lured out of this book.", "For long ago, the truth to say,", "He has grown up and gone away;", "And it is but a child of air", "That lingers in the garden there." ], "linecount": "44" }, { "title": "The Wind Is Without There And Howls In The Trees", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "THE wind is without there and howls in the trees,", "And the rain-flurries drum on the glass:", "Alone by the fireside with elbows on knees", "I can number the hours as they pass.", "Yet now, when to cheer me the crickets begin,", "And my pipe is just happily lit,", "Believe me, my friend, tho' the evening draws in,", "That not all uncontested I sit.", "", "Alone, did I say? O no, nowise alone", "With the Past sitting warm on my knee,", "To gossip of days that are over and gone,", "But still charming to her and to me.", "With much to be glad of and much to deplore,", "Yet, as these days with those we compare,", "Believe me, my friend, tho' the sorrows seem more", "They are somehow more easy to bear.", "", "And thou, faded Future, uncertain and frail,", "As I cherish thy light in each draught,", "His lamp is not more to the miner - their sail", "Is not more to the crew on the raft.", "For Hope can make feeble ones earnest and brave,", "And, as forth thro' the years I look on,", "Believe me, my friend, between this and the grave,", "I see wonderful things to be done.", "", "To do or to try; and, believe me, my friend,", "If the call should come early for me,", "I can leave these foundations uprooted, and tend", "For some new city over the sea.", "To do or to try; and if failure be mine,", "And if Fortune go cross to my plan,", "Believe me, my friend, tho' I mourn the design", "I shall never lament for the man." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "Winter-Time", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,", "A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;", "Blinks but an hour or two; and then,", "A blood-red orange, sets again.", "", "Before the stars have left the skies,", "At morning in the dark I rise;", "And shivering in my nakedness,", "By the cold candle, bathe and dress.", "", "Close by the jolly fire I sit", "To warm my frozen bones a bit;", "Or with a reindeer-sled, explore", "The colder countries round the door.", "", "When to go out, my nurse doth wrap", "Me in my comforter and cap;", "The cold wind burns my face, and blows", "Its frosty pepper up my nose.", "", "Black are my steps on silver sod;", "Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;", "And tree and house, and hill and lake,", "Are frosted like a wedding cake." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Light As The Linnet On My Way I Start", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "LIGHT as the linnet on my way I start,", "For all my pack I bear a chartered heart.", "Forth on the world without a guide or chart,", "Content to know, through all man's varying fates,", "The eternal woman by the wayside waits." ], "linecount": "5" }, { "title": "The Summer Sun Shone Round Me", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "THE summer sun shone round me,", "The folded valley lay", "In a stream of sun and odour,", "That sultry summer day.", "", "The tall trees stood in the sunlight", "As still as still could be,", "But the deep grass sighed and rustled", "And bowed and beckoned me.", "", "The deep grass moved and whispered", "And bowed and brushed my face.", "It whispered in the sunshine:", "\"The winter comes apace.\"" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Music At The Villa Marina", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "FOR some abiding central source of power,", "Strong-smitten steady chords, ye seem to flow", "And, flowing, carry virtue. Far below,", "The vain tumultuous passions of the hour", "Fleet fast and disappear; and as the sun", "Shines on the wake of tempests, there is cast", "O'er all the shattered ruins of my past", "A strong contentment as of battles won.", "", "And yet I cry in anguish, as I hear", "The long drawn pageant of your passage roll", "Magnificently forth into the night.", "To yon fair land ye come from, to yon sphere", "Of strength and love where now ye shape your flight,", "O even wings of music, bear my soul!", "", "Ye have the power, if but ye had the will,", "Strong-smitten steady chords in sequence grand,", "To bear me forth into that tranquil land", "Where good is no more ravelled up with ill;", "Where she and I, remote upon some hill", "Or by some quiet river's windless strand,", "May live, and love, and wander hand in hand,", "And follow nature simply, and be still.", "", "From this grim world, where, sadly, prisoned, we", "Sit bound with others' heart-strings as with chains,", "And, if one moves, all suffer, - to that Goal,", "If such a land, if such a sphere, there be,", "Thither, from life and all life's joys and pains,", "O even wings of music, bear my soul!" ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "The Dumb Soldier", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "When the grass was closely mown,", "Walking on the lawn alone,", "In the turf a hole I found", "And hid a soldier underground.", "", "Spring and daisies came apace;", "Grasses hid my hiding-place;", "Grasses run like a green sea", "O'er the lawn up to my knee.", "", "Under grass alone he lies,", "Looking up with leaden eyes,", "Scarlet coat and pointed gun,", "To the stars and to the sun.", "", "When the grass is ripe like grain,", "When the scythe is stoned again,", "When the lawn is shaven clear,", "Then my hole shall reappear.", "", "I shall find him, never fear,", "I shall find my grenadier;", "But, for all that's gone and come,", "I shall find my soldier dumb.", "", "He has lived, a little thing,", "In the grassy woods of spring;", "Done, if he could tell me true,", "Just as I should like to do.", "", "He has seen the starry hours", "And the springing of the flowers;", "And the fairy things that pass", "In the forests of the grass.", "", "In the silence he has heard", "Talking bee and ladybird,", "And the butterfly has flown", "O'er him as he lay alone.", "", "Not a word will he disclose,", "Not a word of all he knows.", "I must lay him on the shelf,", "And make up the tale myself." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "God Gave To Me A Child In Part", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "GOD gave to me a child in part,", "Yet wholly gave the father's heart:", "Child of my soul, O whither now,", "Unborn, unmothered, goest thou?", "", "You came, you went, and no man wist;", "Hapless, my child, no breast you kist;", "On no dear knees, a privileged babbler, clomb,", "Nor knew the kindly feel of home.", "", "My voice may reach you, O my dear-", "A father's voice perhaps the child may hear;", "And, pitying, you may turn your view", "On that poor father whom you never knew.", "", "Alas! alone he sits, who then,", "Immortal among mortal men,", "Sat hand in hand with love, and all day through", "With your dear mother wondered over you." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Since Thou Hast Given Me This Good Hope, O God", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "SINCE thou hast given me this good hope, O God,", "That while my footsteps tread the flowery sod", "And the great woods embower me, and white dawn", "And purple even sweetly lead me on", "From day to day, and night to night, O God,", "My life shall no wise miss the light of love;", "But ever climbing, climb above", "Man's one poor star, man's supine lands,", "Into the azure steadfastness of death,", "My life shall no wise lack the light of love,", "My hands not lack the loving touch of hands;", "But day by day, while yet I draw my breath,", "And day by day, unto my last of years,", "I shall be one that has a perfect friend.", "Her heart shall taste my laughter and my tears,", "And her kind eyes shall lead me to the end." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Farewell", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "FAREWELL, and when forth", "I through the Golden Gates to Golden Isles", "Steer without smiling, through the sea of smiles,", "Isle upon isle, in the seas of the south,", "Isle upon island, sea upon sea,", "Why should I sail, why should the breeze?", "I have been young, and I have counted friends.", "A hopeless sail I spread, too late, too late.", "Why should I from isle to isle", "Sail, a hopeless sailor?" ], "linecount": "10" }, { "title": "To My Name-Child", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "1", "", "Some day soon this rhyming volume, if you learn with proper speed,", "Little Louis Sanchez, will be given you to read.", "Then you shall discover, that your name was printed down", "By the English printers, long before, in London town.", "", "In the great and busy city where the East and West are met,", "All the little letters did the English printer set;", "While you thought of nothing, and were still too young to play,", "Foreign people thought of you in places far away.", "", "Ay, and when you slept, a baby, over all the English lands", "Other little children took the volume in their hands;", "Other children questioned, in their homes across the seas:", "Who was little Louis, won't you tell us, mother, please?", "", "2", "", "Now that you have spelt your lesson, lay it down and go and play,", "Seeking shells and seaweed on the sands of Monterey,", "Watching all the mighty whalebones, lying buried by the breeze,", "Tiny sandpipers, and the huge Pacific seas.", "", "And remember in your playing, as the sea-fog rolls to you,", "Long ere you could read it, how I told you what to do;", "And that while you thought of no one, nearly half the world away", "Some one thought of Louis on the beach of Monterey!" ], "linecount": "22" }, { "title": "The Flowers", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "All the names I know from nurse:", "Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,", "Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,", "And the Lady Hollyhock.", "", "Fairy places, fairy things,", "Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,", "Tiny trees for tiny dames--", "These must all be fairy names!", "", "Tiny woods below whose boughs", "Shady fairies weave a house;", "Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,", "Where the braver fairies climb!", "", "Fair are grown-up people's trees,", "But the fairest woods are these;", "Where, if I were not so tall,", "I should live for good and all." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Over The Land Is April", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "OVER the land is April,", "Over my heart a rose;", "Over the high, brown mountain", "The sound of singing goes.", "Say, love, do you hear me,", "Hear my sonnets ring?", "Over the high, brown mountain,", "Love, do you hear me sing?", "", "By highway, love, and byway", "The snows succeed the rose.", "Over the high, brown mountain", "The wind of winter blows.", "Say, love, do you hear me,", "Hear my sonnets ring?", "Over the high, brown mountain", "I sound the song of spring,", "I throw the flowers of spring.", "Do you hear the song of spring?", "Hear you the songs of spring?" ], "linecount": "19" }, { "title": "Autumn Fires", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "In the other gardens", "And all up the vale,", "From the autumn bonfires", "See the smoke trail!", "", "Pleasant summer over", "And all the summer flowers,", "The red fire blazes,", "The grey smoke towers.", "", "Sing a song of seasons!", "Something bright in all!", "Flowers in the summer,", "Fires in the fall!" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "If This Were Faith", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "God, if this were enough,", "That I see things bare to the buff", "And up to the buttocks in mire;", "That I ask nor hope nor hire,", "Nut in the husk,", "Nor dawn beyond the dusk,", "Nor life beyond death:", "God, if this were faith!", "", "Having felt thy wind in my face", "Spit sorrow and disgrace,", "Having seen thine evil doom", "In Golgotha and Khartoum,", "And the brutes, the work of thine hands,", "Fill with injustice lands", "And stain with blood the sea:", "If still in my veins the glee", "Of the black night and the sun", "And the lost battle, run:", "If, an adept,", "The iniquitous lists I still accept", "With joy, and joy to endure and be withstood,", "And still to battle and perish for a dream of good:", "God, if that were enough!", "", "If to feel, in the ink of the slough,", "And the sink of the mire,", "Veins of glory and fire", "Run through and transpierce and transpire,", "And a secret purpose of glory in every part,", "And the answering glory of battle fill my heart;", "To thrill with the joy of girded men", "To go on for ever and fail and go on again,", "And be mauled to the earth and arise,", "And contend for the shade of a word and a thing", "not seen with the eyes:", "With the half of a broken hope for a pillow at night", "That somehow the right is the right", "And the smooth shall bloom from the rough:", "Lord, if that were enough!" ], "linecount": "38" }, { "title": "I Dreamed Of Forest Alleys fair", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "I.", "", "I DREAMED of forest alleys fair", "And fields of gray-flowered grass,", "Where by the yellow summer moon", "My Jenny seemed to pass.", "", "I dreamed the yellow summer moon,", "Behind a cedar wood,", "Lay white on fields of rippling grass", "Where I and Jenny stood.", "", "I dreamed - but fallen through my dream,", "In a rainy land I lie", "Where wan wet morning crowns the hills", "Of grim reality.", "", "II.", "", "I am as one that keeps awake", "All night in the month of June,", "That lies awake in bed to watch", "The trees and great white moon.", "", "For memories of love are more", "Than the white moon there above,", "And dearer than quiet moonshine", "Are the thoughts of her I love.", "", "III.", "", "Last night I lingered long without", "My last of loves to see.", "Alas! the moon-white window-panes", "Stared blindly back on me.", "", "To-day I hold her very hand,", "Her very waist embrace -", "Like clouds across a pool, I read", "Her thoughts upon her face.", "", "And yet, as now, through her clear eyes", "I seek the inner shrine -", "I stoop to read her virgin heart", "In doubt if it be mine -", "", "O looking long and fondly thus,", "What vision should I see?", "No vision, but my own white face", "That grins and mimics me.", "", "IV.", "", "Once more upon the same old seat", "In the same sunshiny weather,", "The elm-trees' shadows at their feet", "And foliage move together.", "", "The shadows shift upon the grass,", "The dial point creeps on;", "The clear sun shines, the loiterers pass,", "As then they passed and shone.", "", "But now deep sleep is on my heart,", "Deep sleep and perfect rest.", "Hope's flutterings now disturb no more", "The quiet of my breast." ], "linecount": "52" }, { "title": "Death, To The Dead For Evermore", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "DEATH, to the dead for evermore", "A King, a God, the last, the best of friends -", "Whene'er this mortal journey ends", "Death, like a host, comes smiling to the door;", "Smiling, he greets us, on that tranquil shore", "Where neither piping bird nor peeping dawn", "Disturbs the eternal sleep,", "But in the stillness far withdrawn", "Our dreamless rest for evermore we keep.", "", "For as from open windows forth we peep", "Upon the night-time star beset", "And with dews for ever wet;", "So from this garish life the spirit peers;", "And lo! as a sleeping city death outspread,", "Where breathe the sleepers evenly; and lo!", "After the loud wars, triumphs, trumpets, tears", "And clamour of man's passion, Death appears,", "And we must rise and go.", "", "Soon are eyes tired with sunshine; soon the ears", "Weary of utterance, seeing all is said;", "Soon, racked by hopes and fears,", "The all-pondering, all-contriving head,", "Weary with all things, wearies of the years;", "And our sad spirits turn toward the dead;", "And the tired child, the body, longs for bed." ], "linecount": "25" }, { "title": "Romance", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "I WILL make you brooches and toys for your delight", "Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.", "I will make a palace fit for you and me,", "Of green days in forests and blue days at sea.", "", "I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,", "Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom,", "And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white", "In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.", "", "And this shall be for music when no one else is near,", "The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!", "That only I remember, that only you admire,", "Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "The Moon", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;", "She shines on thieves on the garden wall,", "On streets and fields and harbour quays,", "And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.", "", "The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,", "The howling dog by the door of the house,", "The bat that lies in bed at noon,", "All love to be out by the light of the moon.", "", "But all of the things that belong to the day", "Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;", "And flowers and children close their eyes", "Till up in the morning the sun shall arise." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "The Angler Rose, He Took His Rod", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "THE angler rose, he took his rod,", "He kneeled and made his prayers to God.", "The living God sat overhead:", "The angler tripped, the eels were fed" ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "To My Mother", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "You too, my mother, read my rhymes", "For love of unforgotten times,", "And you may chance to hear once more", "The little feet along the floor." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Summer Sun", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "Great is the sun, and wide he goes", "Through empty heaven with repose;", "And in the blue and glowing days", "More thick than rain he showers his rays.", "", "Though closer still the blinds we pull", "To keep the shady parlour cool,", "Yet he will find a chink or two", "To slip his golden fingers through.", "", "The dusty attic spider-clad", "He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;", "And through the broken edge of tiles", "Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.", "", "Meantime his golden face around", "He bares to all the garden ground,", "And sheds a warm and glittering look", "Among the ivy's inmost nook.", "", "Above the hills, along the blue,", "Round the bright air with footing true,", "To please the child, to paint the rose,", "The gardener of the World, he goes." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Good and Bad Children", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "Children, you are very little,", "And your bones are very brittle;", "If you would grow great and stately,", "You must try to walk sedately.", "", "You must still be bright and quiet,", "And content with simple diet;", "And remain, through all bewild'ring,", "Innocent and honest children.", "", "Happy hearts and happy faces,", "Happy play in grassy places--", "That was how in ancient ages,", "Children grew to kings and sages.", "", "But the unkind and the unruly,", "And the sort who eat unduly,", "They must never hope for glory--", "Theirs is quite a different story!", "", "Cruel children, crying babies,", "All grow up as geese and gabies,", "Hated, as their age increases,", "By their nephews and their nieces." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "St. Martin's Summer", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "AS swallows turning backward", "When half-way o'er the sea,", "At one word's trumpet summons", "They came again to me -", "The hopes I had forgotten", "Came back again to me.", "", "I know not which to credit,", "O lady of my heart!", "Your eyes that bade me linger,", "Your words that bade us part -", "I know not which to credit,", "My reason or my heart.", "", "But be my hopes rewarded,", "Or be they but in vain,", "I have dreamed a golden vision,", "I have gathered in the grain -", "I have dreamed a golden vision,", "I have not lived in vain." ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Away With Funeral Music", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "AWAY with funeral music - set", "The pipe to powerful lips -", "The cup of life's for him that drinks", "And not for him that sips." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Spring Song", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "THE air was full of sun and birds,", "The fresh air sparkled clearly.", "Remembrance wakened in my heart", "And I knew I loved her dearly.", "", "The fallows and the leafless trees", "And all my spirit tingled.", "My earliest thought of love, and Spring's", "First puff of perfume mingled.", "", "In my still heart the thoughts awoke,", "Came lone by lone together -", "Say, birds and Sun and Spring, is Love", "A mere affair of weather?" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Happy Thought", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "The world is so full of a number of things,", "I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." ], "linecount": "2" }, { "title": "Spring Carol", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "WHEN loud by landside streamlets gush,", "And clear in the greenwood quires the thrush,", "With sun on the meadows", "And songs in the shadows", "Comes again to me", "The gift of the tongues of the lea,", "The gift of the tongues of meadows.", "", "Straightway my olden heart returns", "And dances with the dancing burns;", "It sings with the sparrows;", "To the rain and the (grimy) barrows", "Sings my heart aloud -", "To the silver-bellied cloud,", "To the silver rainy arrows.", "", "It bears the song of the skylark down,", "And it hears the singing of the town;", "And youth on the highways", "And lovers in byways", "Follows and sees:", "And hearkens the song of the leas", "And sings the songs of the highways.", "", "So when the earth is alive with gods,", "And the lusty ploughman breaks the sod,", "And the grass sings in the meadows,", "And the flowers smile in the shadows,", "Sits my heart at ease,", "Hearing the song of the leas,", "Singing the songs of the meadows." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "Behold, As Goblins Dark Of Mien", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "BEHOLD, as goblins dark of mien", "And portly tyrants dyed with crime", "Change, in the transformation scene,", "At Christmas, in the pantomime,", "", "Instanter, at the prompter's cough,", "The fairy bonnets them, and they", "Throw their abhorred carbuncles off", "And blossom like the flowers in May.", "", "- So mankind, to angelic eyes,", "So, through the scenes of life below,", "In life's ironical disguise,", "A travesty of man, ye go:", "", "But fear not: ere the curtain fall,", "Death in the transformation scene", "Steps forward from her pedestal,", "Apparent, as the fairy Queen;", "", "And coming, frees you in a trice", "From all your lendings - lust of fame,", "Ungainly virtue, ugly vice,", "Terror and tyranny and shame.", "", "So each, at last himself, for good", "In that dear country lays him down,", "At last beloved and understood", "And pure in feature and renown." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Bed in Summer", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "In winter I get up at night", "And dress by yellow candle-light.", "In summer quite the other way,", "I have to go to bed by day.", "", "I have to go to bed and see", "The birds still hopping on the tree,", "Or hear the grown-up people's feet", "Still going past me in the street.", "", "And does it not seem hard to you,", "When all the sky is clear and blue,", "And I should like so much to play,", "To have to go to bed by day?" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "When The Sun Come After Rain", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "WHEN the sun comes after rain", "And the bird is in the blue,", "The girls go down the lane", "Two by two.", "", "When the sun comes after shadow", "And the singing of the showers,", "The girls go up the meadow,", "Fair as flowers.", "", "When the eve comes dusky red", "And the moon succeeds the sun,", "The girls go home to bed", "One by one.", "", "And when life draws to its even", "And the day of man is past,", "They shall all go home to heaven,", "Home at last." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Farewell to the Farm", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "The coach is at the door at last;", "The eager children, mounting fast", "And kissing hands, in chorus sing:", "Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!", "", "To house and garden, field and lawn,", "The meadow-gates we swang upon,", "To pump and stable, tree and swing,", "Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!", "", "And fare you well for evermore,", "O ladder at the hayloft door,", "O hayloft where the cobwebs cling,", "Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!", "", "Crack goes the whip, and off we go;", "The trees and houses smaller grow;", "Last, round the woody turn we sing:", "Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Hail! Childish Slave Of Social Rules", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "HAIL! Childish slaves of social rules", "You had yourselves a hand in making!", "How I could shake your faith, ye fools,", "If but I thought it worth the shaking.", "I see, and pity you; and then", "Go, casting off the idle pity,", "In search of better, braver men,", "My own way freely through the city.", "", "My own way freely, and not yours;", "And, careless of a town's abusing,", "Seek real friendship that endures", "Among the friends of my own choosing.", "I'll choose my friends myself, do you hear?", "And won't let Mrs. Grundy do it,", "Tho' all I honour and hold dear", "And all I hope should move me to it.", "", "I take my old coat from the shelf -", "I am a man of little breeding.", "And only dress to please myself -", "I own, a very strange proceeding.", "I smoke a pipe abroad, because", "To all cigars I much prefer it,", "And as I scorn your social laws", "My choice has nothing to deter it.", "", "Gladly I trudge the footpath way,", "While you and yours roll by in coaches", "In all the pride of fine array,", "Through all the city's thronged approaches.", "O fine religious, decent folk,", "In Virtue's flaunting gold and scarlet,", "I sneer between two puffs of smoke, -", "Give me the publican and harlot.", "", "Ye dainty-spoken, stiff, severe", "Seed of the migrated Philistian,", "One whispered question in your ear -", "Pray, what was Christ, if you be Christian?", "If Christ were only here just now,", "Among the city's wynds and gables", "Teaching the life he taught us, how", "Would he be welcome to your tables?", "", "I go and leave your logic-straws,", "Your former-friends with face averted,", "Your petty ways and narrow laws,", "Your Grundy and your God, deserted.", "From your frail ark of lies, I flee", "I know not where, like Noah's raven.", "Full to the broad, unsounded sea", "I swim from your dishonest haven.", "", "Alone on that unsounded deep,", "Poor waif, it may be I shall perish,", "Far from the course I thought to keep,", "Far from the friends I hoped to cherish.", "It may be that I shall sink, and yet", "Hear, thro' all taunt and scornful laughter,", "Through all defeat and all regret,", "The stronger swimmers coming after." ], "linecount": "56" }, { "title": "I WHo All The Winter Through", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "I WHO all the winter through", "Cherished other loves than you,", "And kept hands with hoary policy in marriage-bed and pew;", "Now I know the false and true,", "For the earnest sun looks through,", "And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew.", "", "Now the hedged meads renew", "Rustic odour, smiling hue,", "And the clean air shines and tinkles as the world goes wheeling through;", "And my heart springs up anew,", "Bright and confident and true,", "And my old love comes to meet me in the dawning and the dew." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Sonnet I", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "NOR judge me light, tho' light at times I seem,", "And lightly in the stress of fortune bear", "The innumerable flaws of changeful care -", "Nor judge me light for this, nor rashly deem", "(Office forbid to mortals, kept supreme", "And separate the prerogative of God!)", "That seaman idle who is borne abroad", "To the far haven by the favouring stream.", "Not he alone that to contrarious seas", "Opposes, all night long, the unwearied oar,", "Not he alone, by high success endeared,", "Shall reach the Port; but, winged, with some light breeze", "Shall they, with upright keels, pass in before", "Whom easy Taste, the golden pilot, steered." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Bour-Tree Den", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "CLINKUM-CLANK in the rain they ride,", "Down by the braes and the grey sea-side;", "Clinkum-clank by stane and cairn,", "Weary fa' their horse-shoe-airn!", "", "Loud on the causey, saft on the sand,", "Round they rade by the tail of the land;", "Round and up by the Bour-Tree Den,", "Weary fa' the red-coat men!", "", "Aft hae I gane where they hae rade", "And straigled in the gowden brooms -", "Aft hae I gane, a saikless maid,", "And O! sae bonny as the bour-tree blooms!", "", "Wi' swords and guns they wanton there,", "Wi' red, red coats and braw, braw plumes.", "But I gaed wi' my gowden hair,", "And O! sae bonny as the bour-tree blooms!", "", "I ran, a little hempie lass,", "In the sand and the bent grass,", "Or took and kilted my small coats", "To play in the beached fisher-boats.", "", "I waded deep and I ran fast,", "I was as lean as a lugger's mast,", "I was as brown as a fisher's creel,", "And I liked my life unco weel.", "", "They blew a trumpet at the cross,", "Some forty men, both foot and horse.", "A'body cam to hear and see,", "And wha, among the rest, but me.", "My lips were saut wi' the saut air,", "My face was brown, my feet were bare", "The wind had ravelled my tautit hair,", "And I thought shame to be standing there.", "", "Ae man there in the thick of the throng", "Sat in his saddle, straight and strong.", "I looked at him and he at me,", "And he was a master-man to see.", ". . . And who is this yin? and who is yon", "That has the bonny lendings on?", "That sits and looks sae braw and crouse?", ". . . Mister Frank o' the Big House!", "", "I gaed my lane beside the sea;", "The wind it blew in bush and tree,", "The wind blew in bush and bent:", "Muckle I saw, and muckle kent!", "", "Between the beach and the sea-hill", "I sat my lane and grat my fill -", "I was sae clarty and hard and dark,", "And like the kye in the cow park!", "", "There fell a battle far in the north;", "The evil news gaed back and forth,", "And back and forth by brae and bent", "Hider and hunter cam and went:", "The hunter clattered horse-shoe-airn", "By causey-crest and hill-top cairn;", "The hider, in by shag and shench,", "Crept on his wame and little lench.", "", "The eastland wind blew shrill and snell,", "The stars arose, the gloaming fell,", "The firelight shone in window and door", "When Mr. Frank cam here to shore.", "He hirpled up by the links and the lane,", "And chappit laigh in the back-door-stane.", "My faither gaed, and up wi' his han'!", ". . . Is this Mr. Frank, or a beggarman?", "", "I have mistrysted sair, he said,", "But let me into fire and bed;", "Let me in, for auld lang syne,", "And give me a dram of the brandy wine.", "", "They hid him in the Bour-Tree Den,", "And I thought it strange to gang my lane;", "I thought it strange, I thought it sweet,", "To gang there on my naked feet.", "In the mirk night, when the boats were at sea,", "I passed the burn abune the knee;", "In the mirk night, when the folks were asleep,", "I had a tryst in the den to keep.", "", "Late and air', when the folks were asleep,", "I had a tryst, a tryst to keep,", "I had a lad that lippened to me,", "And bour-tree blossom is fair to see!", "", "O' the bour-tree leaves I busked his bed,", "The mune was siller, the dawn was red:", "Was nae man there but him and me -", "And bour-tree blossom is fair to see!", "", "Unco weather hae we been through:", "The mune glowered, and the wind blew,", "And the rain it rained on him and me,", "And bour-tree blossom is fair to see!", "", "Dwelling his lane but house or hauld,", "Aft he was wet and aft was cauld;", "I warmed him wi' my briest and knee -", "And bour-tree blossom is fair to see!", "", "There was nae voice of beast ae man,", "But the tree soughed and the burn ran,", "And we heard the ae voice of the sea:", "Bour-tree blossom is fair to see!" ], "linecount": "96" }, { "title": "To Friends At Home", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "TO friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lost", "The gracious old, the lovely young, to May", "The fair, December the beloved,", "These from my blue horizon and green isles,", "These from this pinnacle of distances I,", "The unforgetful, dedicate." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "Home, My Little Children, Hear Are Songs For You", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "COME, my little children, here are songs for you;", "Some are short and some are long, and all, all are new.", "You must learn to sing them very small and clear,", "Very true to time and tune and pleasing to the ear.", "", "Mark the note that rises, mark the notes that fall,", "Mark the time when broken, and the swing of it all.", "So when night is come, and you have gone to bed,", "All the songs you love to sing shall echo in your head." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Prayer", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "I ASK good things that I detest,", "With speeches fair;", "Heed not, I pray Thee, Lord, my breast,", "But hear my prayer.", "", "I say ill things I would not say -", "Things unaware:", "Regard my breast, Lord, in Thy day,", "And not my prayer.", "", "My heart is evil in Thy sight:", "My good thoughts flee:", "O Lord, I cannot wish aright -", "Wish Thou for me.", "", "O bend my words and acts to Thee,", "However ill,", "That I, whate'er I say or be,", "May serve Thee still.", "", "O let my thoughts abide in Thee", "Lest I should fall:", "Show me Thyself in all I see,", "Thou Lord of all." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "In The Green And Gallant Spring", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "IN the green and gallant Spring,", "Love and the lyre I thought to sing,", "And kisses sweet to give and take", "By the flowery hawthorn brake.", "", "Now is russet Autumn here,", "Death and the grave and winter drear,", "And I must ponder here aloof", "While the rain is on the roof." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Foreign Children", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow,", "Little frosty Eskimo,", "Little Turk or Japanee,", "Oh! don't you wish that you were me?", "", "You have seen the scarlet trees", "And the lions over seas;", "You have eaten ostrich eggs,", "And turned the turtle off their legs.", "", "Such a life is very fine,", "But it's not so nice as mine:", "You must often as you trod,", "Have wearied NOT to be abroad.", "", "You have curious things to eat,", "I am fed on proper meat;", "You must dwell upon the foam,", "But I am safe and live at home.", "Little Indian, Sioux or Crow,", "Little frosty Eskimo,", "Little Turk or Japanee,", "Oh! don't you wish that you were me?" ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "Picture-Books in Winter", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "Summer fading, winter comes--", "Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,", "Window robins, winter rooks,", "And the picture story-books.", "", "Water now is turned to stone", "Nurse and I can walk upon;", "Still we find the flowing brooks", "In the picture story-books.", "", "All the pretty things put by,", "Wait upon the children's eye,", "Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,", "In the picture story-books.", "", "We may see how all things are", "Seas and cities, near and far,", "And the flying fairies' looks,", "In the picture story-books.", "", "How am I to sing your praise,", "Happy chimney-corner days,", "Sitting safe in nursery nooks,", "Reading picture story-books?" ], "linecount": "20" } ]