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Robert Louis Stevenson: Collected Poems

Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Janet Adam Smith

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 I. 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
 X. 
 XI. 
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 XIII. 
 XIV. 
 XV. 
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 XXVIII. 
 XXIX. 
 XXX. 
 XXXI. 
 XXXII. 
 XXXIII. 
 XXXIV. 
 XXXV. 
 XXXVI. 
 XXXVII. 
 XXXVIII. 
 XXXIX. 
 XL. 
 XLI. 
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IV
Ne Sit Ancillae Tibi Amor Pudori

There's just a twinkle in your eye
That seems to say I might, if I
Were only bold enough to try
An arm about your waist.
I hear, too, as you come and go,
That pretty nervous laugh, you know;
And then your cap is always so
Coquettishly displaced.
Your cap! the word's profanely said,
That little topknot, white and red,
That quaintly crowns your graceful head,
No bigger than a flower,
You set with such a witching art,
And so provocatively smart,
I'd like to wear it on my heart,
An order for an hour!

333

O graceful housemaid, tall and fair,
I love your shy imperial air,
And always loiter on the stair,
When you are going by.
A strict reserve the fates demand;
But, when to let you pass I stand,
Sometimes by chance I touch your hand
And sometimes catch your eye.