Complete Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Illustrated) (513 page)

The lonely blind console.

 

A moment, lend your hand, I bring

My sheaf for you to bind,

And you can teach my words to sing

In the darkness of the blind.

Vailima,
December
.

 

XIV

SONG

 

Light foot and tight foot,

And green grass spread,

Early in the morning,

But hope is on ahead.

Brief day and bright day,

And sunset red,

Early in the evening,

The stars are overhead.

 

THE LIGHT-KEEPER

 

I

The brilliant kernel of the night,

The flaming lightroom circles me:

I sit within a blaze of light

Held high above the dusky sea.

Far off the surf doth break and roar

Along bleak miles of moonlit shore,

Where through the tides the tumbling wave

Falls in an avalanche of foam

And drives its churnèd waters home

Up many an undercliff and cave.

The clear bell chimes: the clockworks strain:

The turning lenses flash and pass,

Frame turning within glittering frame

With frosty gleam of moving glass:

Unseen by me, each dusky hour

The sea-waves welter up the tower

Or in the ebb subside again;

And ever and anon all night,

Drawn from afar by charm of light,

A sea-bird beats against the pane.

And lastly when dawn ends the night

And belts the semi-orb of sea,

The tall, pale pharos in the light

Looks white and spectral as may be.

 

The early ebb is out: the green

Straight belt of sea-weed now is seen,

That round the basement of the tower

Marks out the interspace of tide;

And watching men are heavy-eyed,

And sleepless lips are dry and sour.

The night is over like a dream:

The sea-birds cry and dip themselves;

And in the early sunlight, steam

The newly-bared and dripping shelves,

Around whose verge the glassy wave

With lisping wash is heard to lave;

While, on the white tower lifted high,

With yellow light in faded glass

The circling lenses flash and pass,

And sickly shine against the sky.

1869.

 

II

As the steady lenses circle

With a frosty gleam of glass;

And the clear bell chimes,

And the oil brims over the lip of the burner,

Quiet and still at his desk,

The lonely light-keeper

Holds his vigil.

Lured from afar,

The bewildered sea-gull beats

Dully against the lantern;

Yet he stirs not, lifts not his head

From the desk where he reads,

Lifts not his eyes to see

The chill blind circle of night

Watching him through the panes.

 

This is his country’s guardian,

The outmost sentry of peace.

This is the man,

Who gives up all that is lovely in living

For the means to live.

Poetry cunningly gilds

The life of the Light-Keeper,

Held on high in the blackness

In the burning kernel of night.

The seaman sees and blesses him;

The Poet, deep in a sonnet,

Numbers his inky fingers

Fitly to praise him:

Only we behold him,

Sitting, patient and stolid,

Martyr to a salary.

1870.

 

 

 

The Poems

 

 

Stevenson’s childhood home, 17 Heriot Row, Edinburgh

 

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF POEMS

 

TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM

A CHILD’S GARDEN OF VERSES

BED IN SUMMER

A THOUGHT

AT THE SEA-SIDE

YOUNG NIGHT-THOUGHT

WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN

RAIN

PIRATE STORY

FOREIGN LANDS

WINDY NIGHTS

TRAVEL

SINGING

LOOKING FORWARD

A GOOD PLAY

WHERE GO THE BOATS?

AUNTIE’S SKIRTS

THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE

THE LAND OF NOD

MY SHADOW

SYSTEM

A GOOD BOY

ESCAPE AT BEDTIME

MARCHING SONG

THE COW

HAPPY THOUGHT

THE WIND

KEEPSAKE MILL

GOOD AND BAD CHILDREN

FOREIGN CHILDREN

THE SUN TRAVELS

THE LAMPLIGHTER

MY BED IS A BOAT

THE MOON

THE SWING

TIME TO RISE

LOOKING-GLASS RIVER

FAIRY BREAD

FROM A RAILWAY CARRIAGE

WINTER-TIME

THE HAYLOFT

FAREWELL TO THE FARM

NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

THE CHILD ALONE

THE UNSEEN PLAYMATE

MY SHIP AND I

MY KINGDOM

PICTURE-BOOKS IN WINTER

MY TREASURES

BLOCK CITY

THE LAND OF STORY-BOOKS

ARMIES IN THE FIRE

THE LITTLE LAND

GARDEN DAYS

NIGHT AND DAY

NEST EGGS

THE FLOWERS

SUMMER SUN

THE DUMB SOLDIER

AUTUMN FIRES

THE GARDENER

HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS

ENVOYS

TO WILLIE AND HENRIETTA

TO MY MOTHER

TO AUNTIE

TO MINNIE

TO MY NAME-CHILD

TO ANY READER

DEDICATION

BOOK I

ENVOY

A SONG OF THE ROAD

THE CANOE SPEAKS

THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL

A VISIT FROM THE SEA

TO A GARDENER

TO MINNIE

TO K. de M.

TO N. V. de G. S.

TO WILL. H. LOW

TO MRS. WILL. H. LOW

TO H. F. BROWN

TO ANDREW LANG

ET TU IN ARCADIA VIXISTI

TO W.E. HENLEY

HENRY JAMES

THE MIRROR SPEAKS

KATHARINE

TO F. J. S.

REQUIEM

THE CELESTIAL SURGEON

OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS

THE SICK CHILD

IN MEMORIAM F.A.S.

TO MY FATHER

IN THE STATES

A PORTRAIT

A CAMP

THE COUNTRY OF THE CAMISARDS

SKERRYVORE

SKERRYVORE

THE PARALLEL

BOOK II

IN SCOTS

TABLE OF COMMON SCOTTISH VOWEL SOUNDS

THE MAKER TO POSTERITY

ILLE TERRARUM

A MILE AN’ A BITTOCK

A LOWDEN SABBATH MORN

THE SPAEWIFE

THE BLAST —

THE COUNTERBLAST —

THE COUNTERBLAST IRONICAL

THEIR LAUREATE TO AN ACADEMY CLASS

DINNER CLUB

EMBRO HIE KIRK

THE SCOTSMAN’S RETURN FROM ABROAD

IN A LETTER FROM MR. THOMSON TO MR. JOHNSTONE

MY CONSCIENCE!

TO DOCTOR JOHN BROWN

THE SONG OF RAHÉRO: A LEGEND OF TAHITI

THE SLAYING OF TÁMATÉA

THE VENGING OF TÁMATÉA

RAHÉRO

THE FEAST OF FAMINE

MARQUESAN MANNERS

THE PRIEST’S VIGIL

THE LOVERS

THE FEAST

THE RAID

TICONDEROGA

A LEGEND OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS

TICONDEROGA

THE SAYING OF THE NAME

THE SEEKING OF THE NAME

THE PLACE OF THE NAME

HEATHER ALE

CHRISTMAS AT SEA

SONGS OF TRAVEL

THE VAGABOND

YOUTH AND LOVE — I

YOUTH AND LOVE — II

WE HAVE LOVED OF YORE

MATER TRIUMPHANS

TO THE TUNE OF WANDERING WILLIE

WINTER

TO DR. HAKE

TO —  —

IF THIS WERE FAITH

MY WIFE

TO THE MUSE

TO AN ISLAND PRINCESS

TO KALAKAUA

TO PRINCESS KAIULANI

TO MOTHER MARYANNE

IN MEMORIAM E.H.

TO MY WIFE

TO MY OLD FAMILIARS

TO S. C.

THE HOUSE OF TEMBINOKA

THE SONG

THE WOODMAN

TROPIC RAIN

AN END OF TRAVEL

TO S.R. CROCKETT

EVENSONG

A FAMILIAR EPISTLE

RONDELS

OF HIS PITIABLE TRANSFORMATION

EPISTLE TO CHARLES BAXTER

THE SUSQUEHANNAH AND THE DELAWARE

EPISTLE TO ALBERT DEW-SMITH

ALCAICS TO HORATIO F. BROWN

A LYTLE JAPE OF TUSHERIE

TO VIRGIL AND DORA WILLIAMS

BURLESQUE SONNET

THE FINE PACIFIC ISLANDS

AULD REEKIE

THE LESSON OF THE MASTER

THE CONSECRATION OF BRAILLE

SONG

THE LIGHT-KEEPER

 

 

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF POEMS

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