A Grave in Samoa

By John Macfarlane

Robert Louis Stevenson died Dec. 3, 1894.

THE WILD birds strangely call,

And silent dawns and purple eves are here,

Where Southern stars upon his grave look down,

Calm-eyed and wondrous clear!

No strife his resting mars!

And yet we deem far off from tropic steeps

His spirit cleaves the pathway of the storm,

Where dark Tantallon keeps.

For still in plaintive woe,

By haunting mem’ry of his yearning led,

The wave-worn Mother of the misty strand

Mourns for her absent dead:

Ah! bear him gently home,

To where Dunedin’s streets are quaint and gray,

And ruddy lights across the steaming rains

Shine soft at close of day!