Arts & Sciences
Envoi
From Songs of Travel, and Other Verses
Let us, who part like brothers, part like bards;
And you in your tongue and measure, I in mine,
Our now division duly solemnise.
Unlike the strains, and yet the theme is one:
The strains unlike, and how unlike their fate!
You to the blinding palace-yard shall call
The prefect of the singers, and to him,
Listening devout, your valedictory verse
Deliver; he, his attribute fulfilled,
To the island chorus hand your measures on,
Wed now with harmony: so them, at last,
Night after night, in the open hall of dance,
Shall thirty matted men, to the clapped hand,
Intone and bray and bark. Unfortunate!
Paper and print alone shall honour mine.
Cite this poem
MLA
Stevenson, Robert Louis. “Envoi.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/stevenson/86/.
Chicago
Stevenson, Robert Louis. “Envoi.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/stevenson/86/.
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