Poems, by Robert Louis Stevenson, hitherto unpublished/Since I am sworn to live my life
SINCE I AM SWORN TO LIVE MY LIFE—1875
Of all the poems belonging to the little group of experimentations in the French style these verses, written at Nemours, are the most successful in their succinct combination of the French spirit and of Stevenson's own attitude towards life, especially in his youth. Not only in form, but likewise in the phrase drawn from the terminology of duelling, or in such an adverb as "gaily,"' we have the French animation, while such lines as "I bear a banner in the strife," and "prudence brawling in the mart," are intimately akin to earlier verses written in Scotland. Then, too, if there is one statement that can always incontrovertibly be made of Stevenson, it is, that he was sworn to lead his life, for all his weakness in health, and his minor weaknesses in character, and that he always carried through, at whatever cost, his main purposes, whether, as in making—against the wishes of his father—literature his profession, or, against the advice of all his friends, in setting forth with little strength and less money on the great adventure of his marriage.
SINCE I AM SWORN TO LIVE MY LIFE
Since I am sworn to live my life,
And not to keep an easy heart,
Some men may sit and drink apart,—
I bear a banner in the strife.
Some can take quiet thought to wife,—
I am all day at tierce and carte;
Since I am sworn to live my life
And not to keep an easy heart.
I follow gaily to the fife,
Leave wisdom bowed above a chart
And prudence brawling in the mart,
And dare misfortune to the knife,
Since I am sworn to live my life.