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  • Bright is the Ring of Words
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Bright is the Ring of Words

Robert Louis Stevenson

Bright is the ring of words
When the right man rings them,
Fair the fall of songs
When the singer sings them.
Still they are carolled and said –
On wings they are carried –
After the singer is dead
And the maker is buried.

Low as the singer lies
In the field of heather,
Songs of his fashion bring
The swains together.
And when the west is red
With the sunset embers,
The lover lingers and sings
And the maid remembers.


Robert Louis Stevenson

from Songs of Travel (1895), and included in The Collected Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson (Edinburgh University Press, 2003).

Tags:

19th century poems English Love Poetry by Heart Scotland pre-1914 posterity songs writing poetry
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Robert Louis Stevenson1850 - 1894

It is sadly ironic that RLS, under whose pen Scotland and the Scottish character burst into life, was exiled to a life and death so far from his native land.
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