Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/575

NEW POEMS I pore on you, dote on you, clasp you to heart,

I laud, love, and laugh at you, Adela Chart,

And thank my dear Maker the while I admire

That I can be neither your husband nor sire.

Your husband's, your sire's were a difficult part;

You're a byway to suicide, Adela Chart;

But to read of, depicted by exquisite James,

O, sure you're the flower and quintessence of dames.

Eructavit cor meum.

Though oft I've been touched by the volatile dart

To none have I grovelled but Adela Chart.

There are passable ladies, no question, in art—

But where is the marrow of Adela Chart?

I dreamed that to Tyburn I passed in the cart—

I dreamed I was married to Adela Chart:

From the first I awoke with a palpable start,

The second dumbfoundered me, Adela Chart!

CLXXXIX

ERE you rest among the valleys, maiden known to but a few,

Here you sleep unsighing, but how oft of yore you sighed!

And how oft your feet elastic trod a measure in the dew

On a green beside the river ere you died!

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