Poems, by Robert Louis Stevenson, hitherto unpublished/At morning on the garden seat
AT MORNING ON THE GARDEN SEAT—1880
In his volume entitled "Literary Friends and Acquaintances," William Dean Howells quotes the saying of Lowell's "which he was fond of repeating at the menace of any form of the transcendental, 'Remember the dinner bell.'" There is always something comforting in the recognition on the part of philosopher or poet of man's interest in so universal and appealing a theme as that of food and drink. In the present delightful little poem, probably written at Silverado, Stevenson not only declares that he dearly loves to drink and eat, and relates how the morning star, the dew and perfumes, the sweet air of dawn all put him in the humor for food, but quaintly emphasizes his avowal by signing his name in full, as if to a credo.
AT MORNING ON THE GARDEN SEAT
At morning on the garden seat
I dearly love to drink and eat;
To drink and eat, to drink and sing,
At morning, in the time of spring.
In winter honest men retire
And sup their possets by the fire;
But when the spring comes round again, you see,
The garden breakfast pleases me.
The morning star that melts on high,
The fires that cleanse the changing sky,
The dew and perfumes all declare
It is the hour to banish care.
The air that smells so new and sweet,
All put me in the cue to eat.
A pot at five, a crust at four,
At half past six a pottle more.
