Page:The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima Edition, Volume 8, 1922.djvu/579

NEW POEMS This is his country's guardian,

The outmost sentry of peace.

This is the man

Who gives up that is lovely in living

For the means to live.

Poetry cunningly gilds

The life of the light-keeper.

Held on high in the blackness

In the burning kernel of night,

The seaman sees and blesses him.

The Poet, deep in a sonnet,

Numbers his inky fingers

Fitly to praise him.

Only we behold him,

Sitting, patient and stolid

Martyr to a salary.

CXCIII

THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS

HREE yellow slaves were set to swing

The doorway curtain to and fro,

With rustle of light folds and ring

Of little bells that hung below;

The still, hot night was tempered so.

And ever, from the carven bed,

She watched the labour of the men;

And saw the band of moonlight spread,

Leap up upon her feet and then

Leap down upon the floor again;

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