IT'S often forgotten what a fine poet Robert Louis Stevenson was, as well as an essayist and teller of thrilling tales.
Here is one of his Songs of Travel from 1895. The composer Ralph Vaughan Williams set some of the sequence most imaginatively for voice and piano. RLS is one of the "Three Rabbies"(the others being Robert Burns and Robert Fergusson) being celebrated tomorrow morning (10.45am) at Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh. The public is welcome.
BRIGHT IS THE RING OF WORDS
Bright is the ring of words
When the right man rings them,
Fair the fall of songs
When the singer sings them.
Still they are carolled and said -
On wings they are carried -
After the singer is dead
And the maker buried.
Low as the singer lies
In the field of heather,
Songs of his fashion bring
The swains together.
And when the west is red
With the sunset embers,
The lover lingers and sings
And the maid remembers.
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