To view more poems I have examined, click HERE.
Happy Thought
by Robert Louis Stevenson
The world is so full of a number of things,
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.
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This is a simple poem (a 2 line rhyming couplet) that expresses a happy thought. I am always intrigued by works like this one, inasmuch as they are subsequently remembered at all. This is so short… is it profound? Does it capture something important despite its brevity? Does it follow that a busy or full world should lead to a happy people? I don’t know, but probably not. For that matter, are kings happy? Again I don’t know, but probably not (though that is an expression generally used and intended to be taken as “yes.”) Maybe Stevenson is making a layered comment on contemporary society.
I suppose a lot of poetry – big or small – will be treasured if the author is also treasured. That is the case here.
About the Author (via wiki)
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Kidnapped and A Child’s Garden of Verses.
Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Sidney Colvin, Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse, Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley, the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in Treasure Island. In 1890, he settled in Samoa where, alarmed at increasing European and American influence in the South Sea islands, his writing turned from romance and adventure fiction toward a darker realism. He died of a stroke in his island home in 1894 at age 44.
A celebrity in his lifetime, Stevenson’s critical reputation has fluctuated since his death, though today his works are held in general acclaim. In 2018, he was ranked just behind Charles Dickens as the 26th-most-translated author in the world.
I’m sure he had a treasure of thoughts to put on paper if he lived longer. Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome! Yeah, it’s a tragedy that he died so young. He did a lot with the time he had, though.