Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO MRS. MACMARLAND, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO MRS. MACMARLAND, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Im schnee der alpen - so it runs
Last Line: The ashes of a bad cigar.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Alps; Mountains; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


Im Schnee der Alpen -- so it runs
To those divine accords -- and here
We dwell in Alpine snows and suns
A motley crew, for half the year:
A motley crew we dwell, to taste --
A shivering band in hope and fear --
That sun upon the snowy waste,
That Alpine ether cold and clear.

Up from the laboured plain, and up
From low sea-levels, we arise
To drink of that diviner cup,
The rarer air, the clearer skies;
Far, as the great, old, godly King
From mankind's turbid valley cries,
So all we mountain-lovers sing:
I to the hills will lift mine eyes!

The bells that ring, the peaks that climb,
The frozen snow's unbroken curd,
Might well revindicate in rhyme
The pauseless stream, the absent bird:
In vain -- for to the deeps of life
You, lady, you, my heart have stirred;
And since you say you love my wife,
Be sure I love you for the word.

Of kindness, here, I nothing say --
Such loveless kindnesses there are
In that grimacing, common way,
That old, unhonoured social war:
Love but my dog and love my love
Adore with me a common star --
I value not the rest above
The ashes of a bad cigar.





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