Page:Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hitherto unpublished, 1921.djvu/58

 THE MOON IS SINKING—THE TEMPESTUOUS WEATHER—1871

This fragment proceeds far enough to show Stevenson at work on the same theme—the onward march despite difficulties—that first engrossed him in 1871 and afforded the material for numerous verses of that year. The lines have little in themselves to recommend them, and Stevenson after having laid aside his mediocre beginning comes back to it later just long enough to add the amusing comments of the last four words of his manuscript. This touch of humor would seem to warrant the inclusion of the fragment, being characteristic of the detached critical attitude which Stevenson took towards his own work.

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