IF I COULD ARISE AND TRAVEL AWAY—(1880?)
In the previous two volumes of Stevenson poems issued by The Bibliophile Society, there was occasion to remark on the coincidence in metre (and a very unusual metre) in Stevenson's poem beginning "I Who All the Winter Through" and in Kipling's "Mandalay." The superlative advantage of Kipling's famous verses lies, of course, in the fact that Mandalay is a place where "there ain't no ten commandments, and a man can raise a thirst." Curiously enough, in the present poem, again antedating Kipling's, Stevenson longs for a land where all men can drink with "perfect zest," and where "we're done with the ten commandments." No charge of plagiarism, however remote, is imputed to Kipling; but the coincidence is certainly interesting. As to the date of the poem, here tentatively suggested as 1880, one cannot be sure; but the handwriting and context seem to point to the Californian days.
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