Robert Louis Stevenson; a Bookman extra number 1913/Home from the Hill
HOME FROM THE HILL[1]
By Sir W. Robertson Nicoll
"Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."—R. L. S.
LET the weary body lie
Where he chose its grave,
'Neath the wide and starry sky,
By the Southern wave,
While the island holds her trust
And the hill keeps faith,
Through the watches that divide
The long night of death.
But the spirit free from thrall,
Now goes forth of these
To its birthright, and inherits
Other lands and seas :
We shall find him when we seek him
In an older home,—
By the hills and streams of childhood
'Tis his weird to roam.
In the fields and woods we hear him
Laugh and sing and sigh ;
Or where by the Northern breakers
Sea-birds troop and cry ;
Or where over lonely moorlands
Winter winds fly fleet ;
Or by sunny graves he hearkens
Voices low and sweet.
We have lost him, we have found him :
Mother, he was fain
Nimbly to retrace his footsteps ;
Take his life again
To the breast that first had warmed it,
To the tried and true,—
He has come, our well belovèd,
Scotland, back to you !
- ↑ First published in Blackwood's Magazine, February, 1895. Reprinted by kind permission of Messrs. Blackwood.