In Lupum

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



BEYOND the gates thou gav'st a field to till;
I have a larger on my window-sill.
A farm, d'ye say?  Is this a farm to you,
Where for all woods I spay one tuft of rue,
And that so rusty, and so small a thing,
One shrill cicada hides it with a wing;
Where one cucumber covers all the plain;
And where one serpent rings himself in vain
To enter wholly; and a single snail
Eats all and exit fasting to the pool?
Here shall my gardener be the dusty mole.
My only ploughman the . . . mole.
Here shall I wait in vain till figs be set,
And till the spring disclose the violet.
Through all my wilds a tameless mouse careers,
And in that narrow boundary appears,
Huge as the stalking lion of Algiers,
Huge as the fabled boar of Calydon.
And all my hay is at one swoop impresst
By one low-flying swallow for her nest,
Strip god Priapus of each attribute
Here finds he scarce a pedestal to foot.
The gathered harvest scarcely brims a spoon;
And all my vintage drips in a cocoon.
Generous are you, but I more generous still:
Take back your farm and stand me half a gill!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:02 min read
62

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEFGGHIJJJDHKLMNNAA
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,040
Words 206
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26

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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