Robert Louis Stevenson

Songs of Travel Robert Louis Stevenson

Book Excerpt: ...them distant as heaven, Dumb and shining and dead, And the idle stars of the nightWere dearer to me than bread. Night after night in my sorrowThe stars stood over the sea, Till lo! I looked in the duskAnd a star had come down to me. VIIPLAIN as the glistering planets shineWhen winds have cleaned the skies, Her love appeared, appealed for mine, And wantoned in her eyes. Clear as the shining tapers burnedOn Cytherea's shrine, Those brimming, lustrous beauties turned, And called and conquered mine. The beacon-lamp that Hero litNo fairer shone on sea, No plainlier summoned will and wit, Than hers encouraged me. I thrilled to feel her influence near, I struck my flag at sight. Her starry silence smote my earLike sudden drums at night. I ran as, at the cannon's roar, The troops the ramparts man -As in the holy house of yoreThe willing Eli