Songs of Travel, and Other Verses

Transcribed from the 1908 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
AND OTHER VERSES
by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
eighth impression
LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1908
The following collection of verses , written at various times and places , principally after the author’s final departure from England in 1887, was sent home by him for publication some months before his death . He had tried them in several different orders and under several different titles , as “ Songs and Notes of Travel ,” “ Posthumous Poems ,” etc. , and in the end left their naming and arrangement to the present editor , with the suggestion that they should be added as Book III. to future editions of “ Underwoods .” This suggestion it is proposed to carry out ; but in the meantime , for the benefit of those who possess “ Underwoods ” in its original form , it has been thought desirable to publish them separately in the present volume . They have already been included in the Edinburgh Edition of the author’s works .
S. C.
CONTENTS
Give to me the life I love, Let the lave go by me, Give the jolly heaven above And the byway nigh me. Bed in the bush with stars to see, Bread I dip in the river— There’s the life for a man like me, There’s the life for ever.
Let the blow fall soon or late, Let what will be o’er me; Give the face of earth around And the road before me. Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I seek, the heaven above And the road below me.
Or let autumn fall on me Where afield I linger, Silencing the bird on tree, Biting the blue finger. White as meal the frosty field— Warm the fireside haven— Not to autumn will I yield, Not to winter even!
Let the blow fall soon or late, Let what will be o’er me; Give the face of earth around, And the road before me. Wealth I ask not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me; All I ask, the heaven above And the road below me.