O LADY FAIR AND SWEET—1875
In this poem, another of Stevenson's rondeau experiments, does he again address the girl who is the subject of so many of his earlier lyrics? If so, with the succeeding poem, "If I had wings, my lady, like a dove," it forms a pair wherein for the first time she is addressed as "My Lady," a form of appellation in consonance with the formal nature of the old French poetry that was at the time providing Stevenson with models. The two poems, as their references to "winter air" and "blinding sleet" indicate, were presumably written in the winter months of 1875, after Stevenson's return from France, and the "noisy street," and "the doleful city row," point to Edinburgh.
O LADY FAIR AND SWEET
O lady fair and sweet
Arise and let us go
Where comes not rain or snow,
Excess of cold or heat,
To find a still retreat
By willowy valleys low
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