The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Vailima ed.)/Volume 8/New Poems/Ad Martialem

by Robert Louis Stevenson

For other versions of this work, see Ad Martialem.

CLXXVII

AD MARTIALEM

GOD knows, my Martial, if we two could be
To enjoy our days set wholly free;
To the true life together bend our mind,
And take a furlough from the falser kind,
No rich saloon, nor palace of the great
Nor suit at law should trouble our estate;
On no vainglorious statues should we look.
But of a walk, a talk, a little book,
Baths, wells, and meads and the verandah shade,
Let all our travels and our toils be made.
Now neither lives unto himself, alas!
And the good suns we see, that flash and pass
And perish; and the bell that knells them cries,
"Another gone: when will ye arise?"