Moral Emblems

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Moral Emblems, by Robert Louis
Stevenson (#35 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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Title: Moral Emblems
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Release Date: January, 1997 [EBook #772]
[This file was first posted
on January 4, 1997]
[Most recently updated: September 17, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, MORAL

EMBLEMS ***
Transcribed from the 1921 Chatto and Windus edition by David Price,
email [email protected]

Moral Emblems
Contents:
NOT I, AND OTHER POEMS
I. Some like drink
II. Here, perfect to a wish
III. As seamen on the
seas
IV. The pamphlet here presented
MORAL EMBLEMS: A COLLECTION OF CUTS AND VERSES
I. See how the children in the print
II. Reader, your soul upraise to
see
III. A PEAK IN DARIEN--Broad-gazing on untrodden lands
IV.
See in the print how, moved by whim
V. Mark, printed on the
opposing page
MORAL EMBLEMS: A SECOND COLLECTION OF CUTS
AND VERSES
I. With storms a-weather, rocks-a-lee
II. The careful angler chose his
nook
III. The Abbot for a walk went out
IV. The frozen peaks he
once explored
V. Industrious pirate! see him sweep
A MARTIAL ELEGY FOR SOME LEAD SOLDIERS
For certain soldiers lately dead
THE GRAVER AND THE PEN: OR, SCENES FROM NATURE,
WITH APPROPRIATE VERSES
I. PROEM--Unlike the common run of men
II. THE PRECARIOUS
MILL--Alone above the stream it stands III. THE DISPUTATIOUS
PINES--The first pine to the second said IV. THE TRAMPS--Now

long enough had day endured
V. THE FOOLHARDY
GEOGRAPHER--The howling desert miles around VI. THE ANGLER
AND THE CLOWN--The echoing bridge you here may see
MORAL TALES
I. ROBIN AND BEN: OR, THE PIRATE AND THE
APOTHECARY--Come, lend me an attentive ear
II. THE
BUILDER'S DOOM--In eighteen-twenty Deacon Thin
NOT I, AND OTHER POEMS
Poem: NOT I
Some like drink
In a pint pot,
Some like to think;
Some not.
Strong Dutch cheese,
Old Kentucky rye,
Some like these;
Not I.
Some like Poe,
And others like Scott,
Some like Mrs. Stowe;

Some not.
Some like to laugh,
Some like to cry,
Some like chaff;
Not I.
Poem: II
Here, perfect to a wish,
We offer, not a dish,
But just the platter:

A book that's not a book,
A pamphlet in the look
But not the matter.
I own in disarray:
As to the flowers of May
The frosts of Winter;

To my poetic rage,
The smallness of the page
And of the printer.
Poem: III
As seamen on the seas
With song and dance descry
Adown the
morning breeze
An islet in the sky:
In Araby the dry,
As o'er the
sandy plain
The panting camels cry
To smell the coming rain:

So all things over earth
A common law obey,
And rarity and worth

Pass, arm in arm, away;
And even so, to-day,
The printer and the
bard,
In pressless Davos, pray
Their sixpenny reward.
Poem: IV
The pamphlet here presented
Was planned and printed by
A printer
unindented,
A bard whom all decry.
The author and the printer,
With various kinds of skill,
Concocted it
in Winter
At Davos on the Hill.
They burned the nightly taper;
But now the work is ripe -
Observe
the costly paper,
Remark the perfect type!
MORAL EMBLEMS I
Poem: I
See how the children in the print
Bound on the book to see what's in 't!

O, like these pretty babes, may you
Seize and APPLY this volume
too!
And while your eye upon the cuts
With harmless ardour opes
and shuts,
Reader, may your immortal mind
To their sage lessons
not be blind.
Poem: II
Reader, your soul upraise to see,
In yon fair cut designed by me,

The pauper by the highwayside
Vainly soliciting from pride.
Mark
how the Beau with easy air
Contemns the anxious rustic's prayer,

And, casting a disdainful eye,
Goes gaily gallivanting by.
He from
the poor averts his head . . .
He will regret it when he's dead.
Poem: III--A PEAK IN DARIEN
Broad-gazing on untrodden lands,
See where adventurous Cortez

stands;
While in the heavens above his head
The Eagle seeks its
daily bread.
How aptly fact to fact replies:
Heroes and eagles, hills
and skies.
Ye who contemn the fatted slave
Look on this emblem,
and be brave.
Poem: IV
See in the print how, moved by whim,
Trumpeting Jumbo, great and
grim,
Adjusts his trunk, like a cravat,
To noose that individual's hat.

The sacred Ibis in the