Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • Scotland’s Makar
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Poets
  • >
  • Robert Louis Stevenson
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Robert Louis Stevenson

1850 - 1894

POEMS

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850, into a family of lighthouse engineers. Despite making an attempt at studying engineering, and then studying and qualifying as a lawyer, by the time he was in his early twenties it was apparent to Stevenson himself, and eventually to his parents, that to be a writer was his calling. The ill-health that had dogged him from his earliest childhood had provided him with the space and time in which his imagination could flourish; it also gave him the constant companionship of his nurse, Alison Cunningham, who fed him a diet of Bible stories and Covenanting history, as well as tuning his young ear to a rich variety of the Scots language.

Although his travels in search of a climate conducive to better health kept him away from Scotland, much of the fiction he was developing in the 1880s reflected his deep interest in his native land. The conflicting currents of the country’s history, and its perceived dualism of national character are reflected in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and in the relationship between the two very different heroes of Kidnapped. (Both books were published in 1886.)

Most famous for his novels, Stevenson was also a poet. He is probably best known for A Child’s Garden of Verses, but he also wrote much lyric poetry, and a range of lively verse in Scots. It was in his poetry that Stevenson most effectively expressed the pain of his separation from Scotland.

Read more

Read the poems

  • Winter-Time
  • Consolation
  • Whole Duty of Children
  • Winter
  • To Any Reader
  • The Swing
  • Happy Thought
  • Escape at Bedtime
  • Windy Nights
  • My Shadow
  • Where Go the Boats?
  • The Land of Story-Books
  • The Lamplighter
  • Requiem
  • The Maker to Posterity
  • ‘I will make you brooches and toys for your delight’
  • Bright is the Ring of Words
  • To S. R. Crockett
  • Songs of Travel, X
  • ‘My brain swims empty and light’
  • From a Railway Carriage

From the Library Catalogue

Publications about Robert Louis Stevenson
Publications by Robert Louis Stevenson

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss