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1850–1894

THE CELESTIAL SURGEON

Robert Louis Stevenson

If I have faltered more or less In my great task of happiness; If I have moved among my race And shown no glorious morning face;

If beams from happy human eyes Have moved me not; if morning skies, Books, and my food, and summer rain Knocked on my sullen heart in vain:—

Lord, Thy most pointed pleasure take And stab my spirit broad awake; Or, Lord, if too obdurate I, Choose Thou, before that spirit die,

A piercing pain, a killing sin, And to my dead heart run them in!

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THE CELESTIAL SURGEON · Robert Louis Stevenson · Poetry Cove