Page:Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hitherto unpublished, 1921.djvu/149

 OF SCHOONERS, ISLANDS AND MAROONS

Of Schooners, Islands and Maroons,

And Buccaneers and Buried Gold,

And Torches red and rising moons,

If all the old romance retold

Exactly in the ancient way,

Can please, as me they pleased of old,

The wiser youngsters of today—

So be it, and fall on! If not,—

If all the boys on better things

Have set their spirits and forgot—

So be it, and fall on! If not—

If all the boys on solid food

Have set their fancies, and forgot

Kingston and Ballantyne the brave

And Cooper of the land and wave,

So be it also; and may I

And my late-born piratic brood

Unread beside the ancients lie!

So be it and fall on! If not,—

If studied youth no longer crave,—

Their ancients' appetites forgot,—

Kingston and Ballantyne the brave,

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