ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

 

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Requiem

 

Under the wide and starry sky,

Dig the grave and let me lie,

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

 

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to he,

Home is the sailor, home from sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

 

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He Hears with Gladdened Heart the Thunder

 

He hears with gladdened heart the thunder
Peal, and loves the falling dew;
He knows the earth above and under—
Sits and is content to view.

 

He sits beside the dying ember,
God for hope and man for friend,

Content to see, glad to remember,
Expectant of the certain end.

 

*

Away with Funeral Music

 

Away with funeral music—set

The pipe to powerful lips—
The cup of life's for him that drinks

And not for him that sips.

 

*

Gather Ye Roses

 

Gather ye roses while ye may,

Old time is still a-flying;

A world where beauty fleets away

Is no world for denying.

Come lads and lasses, fall to play

Lose no more time in sighing.

 

The very flowers you pluck today,

Tomorrow will be dying;

And all the flowers are crying,

And all the leaves have tongues to say,—

Gather ye roses while ye may.