My Heart, When First The Black-Bird Sings

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)



MY heart, when first the blackbird sings,
My heart drinks in the song:
Cool pleasure fills my bosom through
And spreads each nerve along.

My bosom eddies quietly,
My heart is stirred and cool
As when a wind-moved briar sweeps
A stone into a pool

But unto thee, when thee I meet,
My pulses thicken fast,
As when the maddened lake grows black
And ruffles in the blast.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

21 sec read
417

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XBXB XCXC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 363
Words 70
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. more…

All Robert Louis Stevenson poems | Robert Louis Stevenson Books

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