Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DUDDINGSTONE, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DUDDINGSTONE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: With caws and chirrupings, the woods
Last Line: We had been drowned in love.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Duddingston, Scotland; Lakes; Love; Pools; Ponds


I

With caws and chirrupings, the woods
In this thin sun rejoice,
The Psalm seems but the little kirk
That sings with its own voice.

The cloud-rifts share their amber light
With the surface of the mere --
I think the very stones are glad
To feel each other near.

Once more my whole heart leaps and swells
And gushes o'er with glee:
The fingers of the sun and shade
Touch music stops in me.

II

Now fancy paints that bygone day
When you were here, my fair --
The whole lake rang with rapid skates
In the windless, winter air.

You leaned to me, I leaned to you,
Our course was smooth as flight --
We steered -- a heel-touch to the left,
A heel-touch to the right.

We swung our way through flying men,
Your hand lay fast in mine,
We saw the shifting crowd dispart,
The level ice-reach shine.

I swear by yon swan-travelled lake,
By yon calm hill above,
I swear had we been drowned that day
We had been drowned in love.





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