Love's Vicissitudes

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



AS Love and Hope together
Walk by me for a while,
Link-armed the ways they travel
For many a pleasant mile -
Link-armed and dumb they travel,
They sing not, but they smile.

Hope leaving, Love commences
To practise on the lute;
And as he sings and travels
With lingering, laggard foot,
Despair plays obligato
The sentimental flute.

Until in singing garments
Comes royally, at call -
Comes limber-hipped Indiff'rence
Free stepping, straight and tall -
Comes singing and lamenting,
The sweetest pipe of all.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

26 sec read
66

Quick analysis:

Scheme XABABA CDXXDD XECEXE
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 495
Words 87
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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