Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/542

NEW POEMS Sound ever; so, for ever go

And come upon your small brown feet:

Twin honours to my country seat

And its too happy master lent:

My solace and its ornament!

II

THE DAUGHTER, TEUILA, NATIVE NAME FOR ADORNER

AN, child or woman, none from her,

The insatiable embellisher,

Escapes! She leaves, where'er she goes,

A wreath, a ribbon, or a rose:

A bow or else a button changed,

Two hairs coquettishly deranged,

Some vital trifle, takes the eye

And shows the adorner has been by.

Is fortune more obdurate grown?

And does she leave my dear alone

With none to adorn, none to caress?

Straight on her proper loveliness

She broods and lingers, cuts and carves

With combs and brushes, rings and scarves.

The treasure of her hair she takes;

Therewith a new presentment makes.

Babe, Goddess, Naïad of the grot,

And weeps if any like it not!

Her absent, she shall still be found,

A posse of native maids around 528