Page:New poems and variant readings, Stevenson, 1918.djvu/105

Rh DEDICATORY POEM FOR "UNDERWOODS"

her, for I must still regard her

As feminine in her degree,

Who has been my unkind bombarder

Year after year, in grief and glee,

Year after year, with oaken tree;

And yet betweenwhiles my laudator

In terms astonishing to me—

To the Right Reverend The Spectator

I here, a humble dedicator,

Bring the last apples from my tree.

In tones of love, in tones of warning,

She hailed me through my brief career;

And kiss and buffet, night and morning,

Told me my grandmamma was near;

Whether she praised me high and clear

Through her unrivalled circulation,

Or, sanctimonious insincere,

She damned me with a misquotation—

A chequered but a sweet relation,

Say, was it not, my granny dear?