About the Book

At last a complete new edition of the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson.During his lifetime Stevenson published A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), Penny Whistles, Underwoods (1887) and Ballads (1890). There were also various private press adventures in poetry with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, and the posthumous Songs of Travel (1895), and New Poems (1918). This new edition contains these collections and also some of Stevenson's printed and manuscript poems that have never been published in any collection. The edition also identifies and restores various poems assembled by Stevenson in his Notebooks, many of which were mutilated by members of The Boston Bibliophile Society.The editor, Roger Lewis, has carefully studied Stevenson's manuscripts and letters, identifying many variants in individual poems and in orders of his collections, as well as in the editorial procedures of a succession of RLS's literary associates who claimed to be fulfilling his intentions or acting on his authority.The ordering of this edition will follow Stevenson's own final arrangement over unauthorised editorial rearrangments or strict considerations of chronology. Complete and accurate dates of composition and publication of individual poems and of collections are given wherever possible.Appendices include bibliographical description and location for manuscript and printed sources of all poems in the edition; 'poems in process' - how Stevenson sketched and revised during composition; notebooks - bibliographical history and significance; chronology and ordonnance of poetic units. There are also explanatory and textual notes. Scots poems are glossed and annotated using The Concise Scots Dictionary and web resources of the SNDA.A substantial introduction covers the publishing histories of individual volumes and literary influences, placing emphasis on Stevenson as a Scottish poet and arguing for his best verse to be considered

Table of Contents:
Preface by the General Editor; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations and Symbols; Concise List of Principal Sources; Chronology; Illustrations; Introduction; THE POEMS; A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES THE CHILD ALONE; GARDEN DAYS; ENVOYS; UNDERWOODS - BOOK I: IN ENGLISH; BOOK II: IN SCOTS; BALLADS; SONGS OF TRAVEL; THE PRIVATE PRINTINGS OF S. L. OSBOURNE & CO.; SELECTED POEMS;; POEMS, 1879-80; MORE PIECES IN SCOTS; THE VAILIMA FAMILY; OCCASIONAL VERSE; Textual Notes; Appendices; Glossary of Scots Words; Explanatory Notes; Index of First Lines; General Index; COMPLETE CONTENTS; Preface by the General Editor; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations and Symbols; Concise List of Principal Sources; Chronology; Illustrations; Introduction pp. 1-34; A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES pp. 35-74; Dedication: To Alison Cunningham; I. Bed in Summer; II. A Thought; III. At the Sea-Side; IV. Young Night Thought; V. Whole Duty of Children; VI. Rain; VII. Pirate Story; VIII. Foreign Lands; IX. Windy Nights; X. Travel; XI. Singing; XII. Looking Forward; XIII. A Good Play; XIV. Where Go the Boats?; XV. Auntie's Skirts; XVI. The Land of Counterpane; XVII. The Land of Nod; XVIII. My Shadow; XIX. System; XX.. A Good Boy; XXI. Escape at Bedtime; XXII. Marching Song; XXIII. The Cow; XXIV. Happy Thought; XXV. The Wind; XXVI. Keepsake Mill; XXVII. Good and Bad Children; XXVIII. Foreign Children; XXIX.The Sun's Travels; XXX. The Lamplighter; Time to Rise; XXXV. Looking-glass River; XXXVI. Fairy Bread; XXXVII. From a Farewell to the Farm; XLI. North-west Passage; i. Good night; ii. Shadow March; iii. In Port; THE CHILD ALONE; I. The Unseen Playmate; II. My Ship and I; III. My Kingdom; IV. Picture-books in Winter; V. My Treasures; VI. Block City; VII. The Land of Story-books; VIII. Armies in the Fire; IX. The Little Land; GARDEN DAYS; I. Night and Day; II. Nest Eggs; III. The Flowers; IV. Summer Sun; V. The Dumb Soldier; VI. Autumn Fires; VII. The Gardener; VIII. Historical Associations; To Minnie; V. To My Name-child; VI. To Any Reader; UNDERWOODS pp.73-129; BOOK I: IN ENGLISH; I. Envoy; II. A Song of the Road; III. The Canoe Speaks; IV.'It is the season now to go'; V. The House Beautiful; VI. A Visit from To N.V. de G.S.; XI. To Will H. Low; XII. To Mrs Will H Low; XIII. To H.F. Brown; XIV. To Andrew Lang; XV. Et Tu in Arcadia Vixisti; XVI. To W.E. Our Lady of the Snows; XXIV. 'Not yet, my soul, these friendly fields desert,'; XXV.'It is not yours, O mother to complain,'; XXVI.The Sick Child; XXVII. In Memoriam F.A.S.; XXVIII. To My Father; XXIX. In the States; XXX. A Portrait; The Country of the Camisards; XXXIV. Skerryvore; XXXV. Skerryvore: The 'My body which my dungeon is'; XXXVIII. 'Say not of me that weakly I declined'; 'When aince since Aprile has fairly come,'; IV. A Mile an' a Bittock; V. A Lowden Sabbath Morn; VI. The Spaewife; VII. The Blast-1875; VIII. The Counterblast-1886; IX. The Counterblast Ironical; X. Their Laureate to an Academy Class Dinner Club; XI. Embro Hie Kirk; XII. The Scotsman's Return from Abroad; XIII. 'Late in the nicht in bed I lay,'; XIV. My Conscience; XV. To Doctor John Brown; XVI. 'It's an owercome sooth for age an' youth'; BALLADS pp.130-71; The Song of Rahéro.; The Feast of Famine.; Ticonderoga: A Legend of the West Highlands.; Heather Ale: A Galloway Legend.; Christmas at Sea.; Explanatory Notes to Ballads; SONGS OF TRAVEL pp.172-205; I. The Vagabond; II. Youth and Lovefair day and fading light!'; XXVI. If this were Faith; XXVII. My Wife; XXVIII. To the Muse; XXIX. To an Island Princess; XXX. To Kalakua; XXXI. To Princess Kaiulani; XXXII. To XXXV. To My Old Familiars; XXXVI. 'The tropics vanish, and meseems that I,'; XXXVII. To S.C.; XXXVIII. The House of Tembinoka; XXXIX. The Woodman; XL. Tropic Rain; XLI. An End of Travel; XLII.'We uncommiserate pass into the To S.R. Crockett; XLVI. Evensong; THE PRIVATE PRINTINGS OF S.L. OSBOURNE & CO. 206-30; A Martial Elegy for Some Lead Soldiers; Not I and The Foolhardy Geographer; The Angler and the Clown; Moral Tales; Robin and Ben; The Builder's Doom; The Perfect Cure; SELECTED POEMS; SONGS AND LITTLE 'I dreamed of forest alleys fair'; IV. Dawn; V. After Reading 'Antony and X. Love's Vicissitudes; XI. Duddingstone; XII. Prelude; XIII. The Vanquished Knight; XIV. 'Away with funeral music Clerk of the Court; V. Song; VI. Auld Reekie; VII. To C. W. Stoddard; VIII. 'When I was young and drouthy'; IX. 'O dinnae mind the drams ye drink'; X. Athole Brose; XI. Impromptu Verses Presented to Girolamo, Count Nerli; THE VAILIMA FAMILY pp.276-81; I. Mother and Daughter; II. The Daughter; III. 'About my fields, in the broad sun'; IV. 'Tall as a guardsman, pale as the east at dawn,'; V. 'What glory for a boy of ten,'; VI. 'The old lady'; VII. Tusitala; VIII. 'These rings, O my beloved pair,'; OCCASIONAL VERSE pp.282-315; Epistles pp.282-94; Dedications and Presentations pp.295-291; Epigrams and Satire pp.291-305; Miscellaneous Verse pp.306-328; TEXTUAL NOTES pp.329-833; APPENDICES pp.834-43; GLOSSARY OF SCOTS WORDS pp.844-9; EXPLANATORY NOTES pp.850-68; INDEX OF FIRST LINES pp.869-; GENERAL INDEX.