Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/366

 The New Poems will be found extraordinarily interesting in their self-revelation, and some are so intimate and personal that one understands why Stevenson withheld them from all eyes save his own. The love-poems in particular, though they are of very unequal merit, possess in common a really affecting sincerity. Indeed, one may say that, with the collection now for the first time published in a widely accessible form, we have a well-rounded poetic personality which will have a new charm for readers of Stevenson and will reveal with greater detail than any of his other writings some of the influences that made him what he was.

That Stevenson should have preserved these poems through all the vicissitudes of his wandering life shows how dearly he must have valued them; and shows, too, that he intended they should be ultimately published. The larger number of the New Poems have appeared in a privately printed edition of in America. Others of the poems have been gathered from many sources, while a number are here printed for the first time directly from manuscript.