New poems and variant readings/Thou strainest through the mountain fern

by Robert Louis Stevenson

THOU STRAINEST THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN FERN

(A Fragment)

Thou strainest through the mountain fern,
A most exiguously thin
⁠Burn.
For all thy foam, for all thy din,
Thee shall the pallid lake inurn,
With well-a-day for Mr. Swin-
⁠Burne!
Take then this quarto in thy fin
And, O thou stoker huge and stern,
The whole affair, outside and in,
⁠Burn!
But save the true poetic kin,
The works of Mr. Robert Burn'
And William Wordsworth upon Tin-
⁠Tern!