Transcribed from the 1918 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org New Poems AND VARIANT READINGS BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON * * * * * LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1918 PREFACE ALL Stevensonians owe a debt of gratitude to the Bibliophile Society of Boston for having discovered the following poems and given them light in a privately printed edition, thus making them known, in fact, to the world at large. Otherwise they would have remained scattered and hidden indefinitely in the hands of various collectors. They will be found extraordinarily interesting in their self-revelation, and some, indeed, are so intimate and personal that one understands why Stevenson withheld them from all eyes save his own. The love-poems in particular, though they are of very unequal merit, possess in common a really affecting sincerity. That Stevenson should have preserved these poems through all the vicissitudes of his wandering life shows how dearly he must have valued them; and shows, too, I think, beyond any contradiction, that he meant they should be ultimately published. LLOYD OSBOURNE. CONTENTS PAGE PRAYER 1 LO! IN THINE HONEST EYES I READ 2 THOUGH DEEP INDIFFERENCE SHOULD DROWSE 2 MY HEART, WHEN FIRST THE BLACKBIRD SINGS 3 I DREAMED OF FOREST ALLEYS FAIR 4 ST. MARTIN’S SUMMER 6 DEDICATION 7 THE OLD CHIMÆRAS, OLD RECEIPTS 8 PRELUDE 10 THE VANQUISHED KNIGHT 11 TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF NORTHERN LIGHTS 11 THE RELIC TAKEN, WHAT AVAILS THE SHRINE? 13 ABOUT THE SHELTERED GARDEN GROUND 14 AFTER READING “ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA” 15 I KNOW NOT HOW, BUT AS I COUNT 15 SPRING SONG 16 THE SUMMER SUN SHONE ROUND ME 16 YOU LOOKED SO TEMPTING IN THE PEW 17 LOVE’S VICISSITUDES 18 DUDDINGSTONE 18 STOUT MARCHES LEAD TO CERTAIN ENDS 20 AWAY WITH FUNERAL MUSIC 20 TO SYDNEY 21