Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

You Looked So Tempting In The Pew

YOU looked so tempting in the pew,You looked so sly and calm -My trembling fingers played with yoursAs both looked out the Psalm.Your heart beat hard..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

Winter-Time

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..

© 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..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

Whole Duty Of Children

A child should always say what's trueAnd speak when he is spoken to,And behave mannerly at table;At least as far as he is able.

© Robert Louis Stevenson

Where Go The Boats?

Dark brown is the river,Golden is the sand.It flows along for ever,With trees on either hand.Green leaves a-floating,Castles of the foam,Boats of..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

When The Sun Come After Rain

WHEN the sun comes after rainAnd the bird is in the blue,The girls go down the laneTwo by two.When the sun comes after shadowAnd the singing of the..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

What Man May Learn, What Man May Do

WHAT man may learn, what man may do,Of right or wrong of false or true,While, skipper-like, his course he steersThrough nine and twenty mingled..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

Wedding Prayer

Lord, behold our family here assembled.We thank you for this place in which we dwell,for the love that unites us,for the peace accorded us this..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

Voluntary

HERE in the quiet eveMy thankful eyes receiveThe quiet light.I see the trees stand fairAgainst the faded air,And star by star prepareThe perfect..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

Variant Form Of The Preceding Poem

COME to me, all ye that labour; I will give your spirits rest;Here apart in starry quiet I will give you rest.Come to me, ye heavy laden, sin defiled..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

Underwoods: Epigram

Of all my verse, like not a single line;But like my title, for it is not mine.That title from a better man I stole:Ah, how much better, had I stol'n..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

Travel

I should like to rise and goWhere the golden apples grow;--Where below another skyParrot islands anchored lie,And, watched by cockatoos and..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To Willie And Henrietta

If two may read arightThese rhymes of old delightAnd house and garden play,You too, my cousins, and you only, may.You in a garden greenWith me were..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To Will H. Low

Youth now flees on feathered footFaint and fainter sounds the flute,Rarer songs of gods; and stillSomewhere on the sunny hill,Or along the winding..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To What Shall I Compare Her?

TO what shall I compare her,That is as fair as she?For she is fairer - fairerThan the sea.What shall be likened to her,The sainted of my youth?For..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To The Muse

Resign the rhapsody, the dream,To men of larger reach;Be ours the quest of a plain theme,The piety of speech.As monkish scribes from morning..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To The Commissioners Of Northern Lights

I SEND to you, commissioners,A paper that may please ye, sirs(For troth they say it might be worseAn' I believe't)And on your business lay my..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To Sydney

NOT thine where marble-still and whiteOld statues share the tempered lightAnd mock the uneven modern flight,But in the streamOf daily sorrow and..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To Rosabelle

WHEN my young lady has grown great and staid,And in long raiment wondrously arrayed,She may take pleasure with a smile to knowHow she delighted..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To Ottilie

YOU remember, I suppose,How the August sun arose,And how his faceWoke to trill and caroletteAll the cages that were setAbout the place.In the tender..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To N. V. De G. S.

THE UNFATHOMABLE sea, and time, and tears,The deeds of heroes and the crimes of kingsDispart us; and the river of eventsHas, for an age of years, to..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To My Name-Child

1Some 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..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To My Mother

You too, my mother, read my rhymesFor love of unforgotten times,And you may chance to hear once moreThe little feet along the floor.

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To Mrs. Will. H. Low.

Even in the bluest noonday of July,There could not run the smallest breath of windBut all the quarter sounded like a wood;And in the chequered..

© Robert Louis Stevenson

To Mrs. Macmarland

IN Schnee der Alpen - so it runsTo those divine accords - and hereWe dwell in Alpine snows and suns,A motley crew, for half the year:A motley crew..

© Robert Louis Stevenson