Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/541

NEW POEMS From European womankind

They are divided and defined

By the free limb and the plain mind,

The nobler gait, the naked foot,

The indiscreeter petticoat;

And show, by each endearing cause,

More like what Eve in Eden was—

Buxom and free, flowing and fine,

In every limb, in every line,

Inimitably feminine.

Like ripe fruit on the espaliers

Their sun-bepainted hue appears,

And the white lace (when lace they wear)

Shows on their golden breast more fair.

So far the same they seem, and yet

One apes the shrew, one the coquette—

A sybil or a truant child.

One runs, with a crop-halo, wild;

And one, more sedulous to please,

Her long dark hair, deep as her knees

And thrid with living silver, sees.

What need have I of wealth or fame,

A club, an often-printed name?

It more contents my heart to know

Them going simply to and fro:

To see the dear pair pause and pass

Girded, among the drenching grass,

In the resplendent sun; or hear,

When the huge moon delays to appear,

Their kindred voices sounding near

In the verandah twilight. So 527