The Annotated Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde/Dedication

by Robert Louis Stevenson

To

KATHARINE DE MATTOS^[1]

It's ill to loose the bands that God decreed to bind;
Still we will be the children of the heather and the wind.
Far away from home, O it's still for you and me
That the broom is blowing bonnie^[2] in the north countrie.^[3]

Notes

In the first edition, the dedication page was the first page of the book, coming before the Table of Contents page, containing the 6 lines above.

1. Dedicated to Stevenson's cousin Katharine with whom he had a friendly relationship.
2. ..broom is blowing bonnie ie. the Scots broom, a type of bush found in Scotland, is flowering beautifully
3. The poem is an excerpt from a longer poem Stevenson wrote for Katherine a few months before the publication of the book. It was about their mutual love of their Scottish heritage.