Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IF I COULD ARISE AND TRAVEL AWAY, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IF I COULD ARISE AND TRAVEL AWAY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
Last Line: But he's done with the ten commandments
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Conduct Of Life; Ten Commandments


If I could arise and travel away
Over the plains of the night and the day,
I should arrive at a land at last
Where all of our sins and sorrows are past
And we're done with the Ten Commandments.

The name of the land I must not tell;
Green is the grass and cool the well:
Virtue is easy to find and to keep,
And the sinner may lie at his pleasure and sleep
By the side of the Ten Commandments.

Income and honor, and glory and gold
Grow on the bushes all over the wold;
And if ever a man has a touch of remorse,
He eats of the flower of the golden gorse,
And to hell with the Ten Commandments.

He goes to church in his Sunday's best;
He eats and drinks with perfect zest;
And whether he lives in heaven or hell
Is more than you or I can tell;
But he's done with the Ten Commandments.





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