Robert Louis Stevenson
¶[1850-1894]
In the Highlands
¶I N the highlands, in the country places,Where the old plain men have rosy faces,And the young fair maidensQuiet eyes;Where essential silence chills and blesses,And for ever in the hill-recessesHer more lovely musicBroods and dies—
¶O to mount again where erst I haunted;Where the old red hills are bird-enchanted,And the low green meadowsBright with sward;And when even dies, the million-tinted,And the night has come, and planets glinted,Lo, the valley hollowLamp-bestarr'dl
¶O to dream, O to awake and wanderThere, and with delight to take and render,Through the trance of silence,Quiet breath!Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,Only the mightier movement sounds and passe:Only winds and rivers,Life and death.
The Celestial Surgeon
¶IF I have faltered more or lessIn my great task of happiness;If I have moved among my race[1213]And shown no glorious morning face;If beams from happy human eyesHave moved me not; if morning skies,Books, and my food, and summer rainKnocked on my sullen heart in vain:—Lord, thy most pointed pleasure takeAnd stab my spirit broad awake;Or, Lord, if too obdurate I,Choose thou, before that spirit die,A piercing pain, a killing sin,And to my dead heart run them in.
74$ Requiem
¶UNDER the wide and starry sky,Dig the grave and let me lie.Glad did I live and gladly die,And I laid me down with a will.
¶This be the verse you grave for me:Here he lies where he longed to be;Home is the sailor, home from sea,And the hunter home from the hill.