Saturday, February 23, 2008

Standing stones

BLOWS the wind to-day, and the sun and the rain are flying,
Blows the wind on the moors to-day and now,
Where about the graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying,
My heart remembers how!

Grey recumbent tombs of the dead in desert places.
Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor,
Hills of sheep, and the homes of silent, vanquished races,
And winds austere and pure:

Be it granted to me to behold you again in dying,
Hills of home! And to hear again the call;
Hear about the graves of the martyrs the peewees crying,
And hear no more at all.

Vailima

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

1 comment:

Littlestone said...

This is from Stevenson's Song XLIII To S R Crockett (on Receiving a Dedication). A whaup is a word used in parts of Scotland for the curlew.