Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson

All Poems Original Poems Translations

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Home From The Daisied Meadows

Home from the daisied meadows, where you linger yet -

Home, golden-headed playmate, ere the sun is set;

For the dews are falling fast

And the night has come at last.

Home with you, home and lay your little head at rest,

Safe, safe, my little darling, on your mother's breast.

Lullaby, darling; your mother is watching you;

she'll be your guardian and shield.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Ad Olum

CALL me not rebel, though { here at every word

{in what I sing

If I no longer hail thee { King and Lord

{ Lord and King

I have redeemed myself with all I had,

And now possess my fortunes poor but glad.

With all I had I have redeemed myself,

And escaped at once from slavery and pelf.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

After Reading "Antony And Cleopatra"

AS when the hunt by holt and field

Drives on with horn and strife,

Hunger of hopeless things pursues

Our spirits throughout life.

The sea's roar fills us aching full

Of objectless desire -

The sea's roar, and the white moon-shine,

And the reddening of the fire.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Windy Nights

Whenever the moon and stars are set,

Whenever the wind is high,

All night long in the dark and wet,

A man goes riding by.

Late in the night when the fires are out,

Why does he gallop and gallop about?

Whenever the trees are crying aloud,

And ships are tossed at sea,

by Robert Louis Stevenson

An English Breeze

UP with the sun, the breeze arose,

Across the talking corn she goes,

And smooth she rustles far and wide

Through all the voiceful countryside.

Through all the land her tale she tells;

She spins, she tosses, she compels

The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails

And all the trees in all the dales.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Fairy Bread

Come up here, O dusty feet!

Here is fairy ready to eat.

Here in my retiring room,

Children ,you may dine

On the golden smell of broom

And the shade of pine;

And when you have eaten well,

Fairy stories hear and tell.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Autumn Fires

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.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Ad Magistrum Ludi

NOW in the sky

And on the hearth of

Now in a drawer the direful cane,

That sceptre of the . . . reign,

And the long hawser, that on the back

Of Marsyas fell with many a whack,

Twice hardened out of Scythian hides,

Now sleep till the October ides.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

At The Sea-Side

When I was down beside the sea

A wooden spade they gave to me

To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.

In every hole the sea came up,

Till it could come no more.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Ad Martialem

GO(D) knows, my Martial, if we two could be

To enjoy our days set wholly free;

To the true life together bend our mind,

And take a furlough from the falser kind.

No rich saloon, nor palace of the great,

Nor suit at law should trouble our estate;

On no vainglorious statues should we look,

But of a walk, a talk, a little book,

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Summer Sun Shone Round Me

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.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

I Who All The Winter Through

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,

by Robert Louis Stevenson