| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| To N. V. De G. S. |
| | | Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) |
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| THE UNFATHOMABLE sea, and time, and tears, | |
| The deeds of heroes and the crimes of kings | |
| Dispart us; and the river of events | |
| Has, for an age of years, to east and west | |
| More widely borne our cradles. Thou to me | 5 |
| Art foreign, as when seamen at the dawn | |
| Descry a land far off and know not which. | |
| So I approach uncertain; so I cruise | |
| Round thy mysterious islet, and behold | |
| Surf and great mountains and loud river-bars, | 10 |
| And from the shore hear inland voices call. | |
| Strange is the seaman’s heart; he hopes, he fears; | |
| Draws closer and sweeps wider from that coast; | |
| Last, his rent sail refits, and to the deep | |
| His shattered prow uncomforted puts back. | 15 |
| Yet as he goes he ponders at the helm | |
| Of that bright island; where he feared to touch, | |
| His spirit readventures; and for years, | |
| Where by his wife he slumbers safe at home, | |
| Thoughts of that land revisit him; he sees | 20 |
| The eternal mountains beckon, and awakes | |
| Yearning for that far home that might have been. | |
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