Page:Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hitherto unpublished, 1921.djvu/67

 end, how altogether Heine the closing line, "The foolish fisher woman!" Stevenson never would have thought of calling her that, unless he were unconsciously writing with Heine's mind. After picturing two scenes—the skipper husband in the storm, and the terrified wife at home—after arousing our sympathy for a loving woman in anguish, Heine alone, of all poets it would seem, would have ironically inwoven the note of tenderness in the "foolish fisherwoman," mocking himself and his own experiences, in thus regarding, with a wry smile of ridiculing pity, the misery of human love.

I SIT UP HERE AT MIDNIGHT

I sit up here at midnight,

The wind is in the street,

The rain besieges the windows

Like the sound of many feet.

I see the street lamps flicker,

I see them wink and fail;

The streets are wet and empty,

It blows an easterly gale.

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