Scottish Poetry Selection
- In the Highlands

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Edinburgh but was not over-fond of "Auld Reekie". The author of such classics as "Treasure Island" and "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" far preferred the wide, open spaces, such as the Highlands, far away from the towns which exacerbated his ill health.


   In the Highlands

In the highlands, in the country places,
Where the old plain men have rosy faces,
And the young fair maidens
      Quiet eyes;
Where essential silence cheers and blesses,
And for ever in the hill-recesses
Her more lovely music
      Broods and dies.

O to mount again where erst I haunted;
Where the old red hills are bird-enchanted,
And the low green meadows
      Bright with sward;
And when even dies, the million-tinted,
And the night has come, and planets glinted,
Lo, the valley hollow
      Lamp-bestarred!

O to dream, O to wake and wander
There, and with delight to take and render,
Through the trance of silence
      Quiet breath;
Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,
Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;
Only winds and river,
      Life and death.

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