Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/543

NEW POEMS Her and her whirring instrument

Collected and on learning bent.

Oft clustered by her tender knees

(Smiling himself) the gazer sees,

Compact as flowers in garden beds,

The smiling faces and shaved heads

Of the brown island babes: with whom

She exults to decorate her room,

To draw them, cheer them when they cry,

And still to pet and prettify.

Or see, as in a looking-glass

Her graceful, dimpled person pass,

Nought great therein but eyes and hair,

On her true business here and there;

Her huge, half-naked Staff, intent,

See her review and regiment,

An ant with elephants, and how

A smiling mouth, a clouded brow,

Satire and turmoil, quips and tears,

She deals among her grenadiers!

Her pantry and her kitchen squad,

Six-footers all, hang on her nod,

Incline to her their martial chests,

With school-boy laughter hail her jests,

And do her in her kilted dress

Obsequious obeisances.

But rather to behold her when

She plies for me the unresting pen!

And while her crimson blood peeps out

Hints a suggestion, halts a doubt:— 529