Page:Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hitherto unpublished, 1921.djvu/51

 ALL INFLUENCES WERE IN VAIN

1871

In this poem written in that mixed mood of dejection and of high resolve so characteristic of Stevenson at this period, the metaphors are decidedly interesting. The picture of Stevenson walking with his shadow and his regret, a trio on the sand; the "thought-wheels galloping through the night into the morning tide;" the thoughts that he seeks to convoke for a plebiscite; the band of wandering thoughts falling into rank for the serious march onward—are all notable and in keeping with the spirit of the poem. But at the very end his sense of humor leads him to a witty touch not quite worthy of the lines that precede it; and while one rejoices that the regret which accompanied him so closely in the second stanza has been dissipated by the time the final stanza has been reached, its plight might have been phrased in a manner more in keeping with the tenor of the earlier lines.

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