Robert Louis Stevenson

“ I have a story;
⁠I have a life that's hard to live;
I love; my love is all my glory;
⁠I have been hurt and I forgive.
I have a friend; none could be better;
⁠I stake my heart upon my friend!
I love; I trust her to the letter ”

“ In the present fragmentary poem, we find the first lyric indication of the re-appearance of Nature's appeal, though even here, in the comment in his autograph where the briefness of life is imaged forth as a flash between the past and the future, the poet is seen as still under the sway of the sombre thoughts that have darkened his winter. ”

“ I should be gone, my lady, to my love,
⁠To kiss the sweet disparting of her hair,
If I had wings, my lady, like a dove.
If I had wings, my lady, like a dove,
⁠This hour should see my soul at rest,
Should see me safe, my lady, with my love,
⁠To kiss the sweet division of her breast,
If I had wings, my lady, like a dove.
For all is sweet, my lady, in my love ”

“ I look below and look above,
On russet maiden, rustling dame,
And love's so slow and time so long,
And hearts and eyes so blindly wrong,
I am half weary of my love,
⁠And pray that life were done. ”

“ At any rate, Stevenson was away from England or Scotland; and it is amusing to find his mind reverting not—as so often in other poems written in America or the South Seas—to home folks and sentimental aspects of early life, but to the ales and beers of his native land. The extent of his thirst is indicated in one of the most whimsical of all his lines, "give me a vat to swim a whale," which may echo the thoughts of not a few latter-day American readers. ”

“ Her eyes are bright with terror,
⁠Her heart beats fast and sore.
Between the roar of the flurries,
⁠When the tempest holds its breath,
She holds her breathing also—
⁠It is all as still as death. ”

“ Then, too, if there is one statement that can always incontrovertibly be made of Stevenson, it is, that he was sworn to lead his life, for all his weakness in health, and his minor weaknesses in character, and that he always carried through, at whatever cost, his main purposes, whether, as in making—against the wishes of his father—literature his profession, or, against the advice of all his friends, in setting forth with little strength and less money on the great adventure of his marriage. ”

“ Henley was a born poet, and it is not to be wondered that he was able—to use Stevenson's term—to spit out admirable lines, lines whose wisdom entitled him to the appellation of "Don." But life was cruel to Henley; the world never "patted" his shoulders, as towards the end it patted the shoulders of Stevenson, and these verses, thus faulty in prophecy, have their value mainly as a bright jeu d' esprit dating from the younger days of the two men. ”

“ With such a beginning, we might assuredly expect a ringing chorus with the glowing bowl for its theme; but instead, we have in the chorus itself the unadulterated note of human fraternity, and the only specific suggestion as to conduct has to do, not with the cheer of wine, but with fraternal cheer in the larger sense. And similarly, in the concluding stanzas, immediately following the adjuration to the devil to take both posterity and the present, an appeal implying the futility of all endeavor, the poet devotes himself to the thought of the value of work. ”

“ From the first to the last stanza Stevenson adheres to a line of imagery effective in itself, and characteristic of the introspective youth whose thoughts and hopes are so much a part of his daily life as to take on the aspect of personified companions. In such verses as "And new hopes whisper sweetly new delight," and "A troop of shouting hopes keep step with me," he gives voice and form to these creatures of the mind, in a manner that appealingly intensifies our realization of the intimate communion between the poet and his faithful troop of thoughts and aspirations. ”

“ There never was a more curious revelation in a drinking song, of cross currents where tendencies towards the easy and the pleasant, the serious and the arduous, are, in their conjunction, expressed in a manner so revelatory of the inner life of the writer. ”

“ This draft of a rondeau written in France in the summer of 1875, seems to be the only one of Stevenson's poems where he patently attempts to incorporate into his verses the spirit of Voltaire. The conception of the thunder as the voice of God is an old one, and the thunderbolts of Jove echo through Greek and Roman literature; but it has remained for Stevenson, in ironic mood, lying in bed "with a Voltairean smile," and while others are praying—to think of the thunder as the noise made by God falling down a flight of stairs. ”

“ In any case, it is unique among the manuscripts of Stevenson, in that it is addressed to America. It is written in a spirit of great faith in the future of our country and exhibits an almost mystic tensity in the hope it cherishes for what America shall achieve. ”

“ While in various poems of this year Stevenson thinks of himself as one who shall be a leader in recruiting humanity for endeavors towards fairer goals than the past has for the most part set, he here writes in a more modest vein, and emphasizes the fact that his hand is but one in a chain of helpfulness, and that the real debt is to those great bygone leaders from whom he has caught his inspiration. ”

“ Who comes to lead us forth—his wife,
⁠But half with our accord.
With fearful fluttered hearts we wait—
⁠We meet him, bathed in tears;
We are so loath to leave behind
⁠Those tranquil convent years ”

“ Stevenson took his law studies seriously enough to get his degree as Advocate after creditably passing his examinations for the Bar in 1875; but in the course of taking notes at law lectures he would now and then indulge in verse as a pastime; and the present lines are a very amusing example of his skill in such unacademic performances. We do not know the name of the professor who is here lampooned, but we do know the type, and can well understand Stevenson's contemptuous pity so deftly worded in the last two lines. ”

“ But the budding romancer probably had no misgivings, and the young lad, Lloyd Osbourne, owing to whom the book was written, and who gave orders that no women were to appear in the story, was there to indicate by his enthusiasm the reception that Treasure Island was to receive from the youth of the world. Like so many others of his prefaces, whether in verse or in prose, this one was not used when the book was published; and its present first appearance in type is an especially interesting contribution to Stevenson literature. ”

“ Here again, were it not for the word "Inchcape"' in the third stanza, we should at first glance feel almost convinced that the present verses are a translation from Heine, so closely both in style and in spirit does the Scottish poet follow the German master. "Inch," meaning an island, is so unmistakably an index of Scottish local nomenclature that it saves us the trouble of going through the works of Heine to find the supposed original; but we can never come upon a more convincing evidence of the intensity of Stevenson's study of the great German lyrist. ”

“ The "youth" to whom this poem was written, probably in 1872, was almost certainly Stevenson's cousin "Bob," who was later to become noted in fields of art and art criticism. Robert Louis and Robert Alan Stevenson had much in common, both in taste and temperament; and of his elder cousin, Stevenson, in a letter to Sidney Colvin, written in January 1874, said: "He has all the same elements of character that I have: no two people were ever more alike, only that the world has gone more unfortunately for him, although more evenly." ”

“ Where I can turn and go again
⁠When life shall prove unkind?
Up, sluggard soul! and far from here
⁠Our mountain forest seek;
Or nigh enchanted island, steer
⁠Down the desired creek. [2]
↑ In Stevenson's description of the South Sea Island of Tutuila he says: "Groves of cocoanut run high on the hills;" and on entering the bay of Oa, he exclaims, "At the first sight, my mind was made up; the bay of Oa was the place for me!" ”

“ In this poem written in that mixed mood of dejection and of high resolve so characteristic of Stevenson at this period, the metaphors are decidedly interesting. The picture of Stevenson walking with his shadow and his regret, a trio on the sand; the "thought-wheels galloping through the night into the morning tide;" the thoughts that he seeks to convoke for a plebiscite; the band of wandering thoughts falling into rank for the serious march onward—are all notable and in keeping with the spirit of the poem. ”

“ The opening stanza of this poem gives Stevenson's most successful presentation of his conception of Death. In the adjective "severe" is the intimation of the joys of life, forgotten when death appears; while in the antithetical adjective "mild," Death is shorn of its terror. ”

“ Exactly in the ancient way,
⁠Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today—
⁠So be it, and fall on! If not,—
If all the boys on better things
⁠Have set their spirits and forgot—
So be it, and fall on! ”

“ And the great horses strained against the load;
Or when some trout would splash in the pool perhaps,
Or my old pointer from his pendulous chaps
Bayed at the very stillness. In the house
It was so strangely quiet that the mouse
Held carnival at midday on the floor.
The hearths were lined with Holland picture tiles
Of olden stories of enchanters' wiles;
And knights, stiff-seeming, upon stiffer steeds
Hasting to help fair ladies at their needs ”

“ POEM FOR A CLASS RE-UNION—1875
Mr. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, himself an author and a man described as charming in his personality, was the Master referred to in the third line of this poem. It was at his private school in Frederick Street, Edinburgh, that Stevenson during the years 1864-1867 had formed the friendships that led him, some years later, to attend the class re-union for which this poem was written.
POEM FOR A CLASS RE-UNION
Whether we like it, or don't,
⁠There's a sort of bond in the fact
That we all by one master were taught,
⁠By one master were bullied and whackt. ”

“ The superlative advantage of Kipling's famous verses lies, of course, in the fact that Mandalay is a place where "there ain't no ten commandments, and a man can raise a thirst." Curiously enough, in the present poem, again antedating Kipling's, Stevenson longs for a land where all men can drink with "perfect zest," and where "we're done with the ten commandments." ”

“ And bible tales, of prophets and of kings;
And faery ones, of midnight, meadow rings
Whereon, at mild star-rise, the wanton elves
Dance, having cleared the grass blades for themselves
As we men clear a forest ”

“ The evidence for this is furnished by Stevenson's marginal comment on the previously published manuscript where, after asking why God has deserted him, he adds: "And why does the damned wind rave in my ears?" In the present poem the lines occur—
All night through, raves or broods
The fitful wind among the woods—
the same wind, presumably, as raved on that same night. But, as we so often find in Stevenson, even in his darkest moments, he here goes beyond the pessimism of the other poem, and lets his fancy stray into more hopeful fields of memory. ”

“ The influence of Heine—an influence we have previously had occasion to comment upon—is again evident in these verses written at Swanston, where the poet likens the rearising of hopeful life after a period of dejection to a glorious sunset after a day of storm and gloom. ”

“ But the young Stevenson is unable to follow Sir Thomas Browne, or the eighteenth century John Stevenson, in finding in Nature, or in Nature's creatures, God the Creator. The closing stanzas show his passionate desire for such consummation, but the poem as a whole does not follow the Hebraic attitude, adopted by Christianity, of perceiving God in his works. ”

“ This drinking song in the Scots dialect is associated with those convivial nights when Stevenson, with some of his fellow students, frequented the taverns of Edinburgh after days generally spent in serious study. It is, of course, the characteristic student drinking song of all ages, with the insistence on the value of tasting the delights of wine, especially in view of the shortness of life. ”

“ This little poem may possibly belong to that juvenile period when Stevenson was somewhat under the influence of Heine. But while the German poet might easily have depicted hunchback and harlot as being of one class with the fellow mortal whom they accost, the "friendly hand" that Stevenson holds out as the poem closes is extended without that ironical gesture which Heine would have been inclined to make.
I AM A HUNCHBACK, YELLOW FACED
I am a hunchback, yellow faced,—
⁠A hateful sight to see,—
'T is all that other men can do
⁠To pass and let me be. ”

“ When Stevenson, in later years, was going over his youthful manuscripts, copying many of them, unquestionably with the intention of having them sooner or later find their way into print, he annotated the present manuscript with the significant ejaculation, "pooh-pooh!" ”

“ The sea shines tranquil, far and wide,
⁠My mind is past the surf of doubt.
The pole-star of my purpose keeps
⁠The constant line that I should steer.
At night my weary body sleeps,
⁠My brain works orderly and clear. ”

“ His recognition of the modes of restlessness which would assail him in a place so distant from all the friends and scenes of his past life, here leads him to call upon those resources of the spirit and of the imagination that are the mainstay of man in whatever abode. ”

“ Priapus, as the deity symbolizing the fruitfulness of nature, was the recipient of the first fruits and the first flowers, and his image with the significance of regeneration often appeared on the tombs of the ancient world. ”