Nature
Thou strainest through the mountain fern
From New Poems (1918)
Nature
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!
Cite this poem
MLA
Stevenson, Robert Louis. “Thou strainest through the mountain fern.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/stevenson/260/.
Chicago
Stevenson, Robert Louis. “Thou strainest through the mountain fern.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/stevenson/260/.
Read this poem with the Codex →