{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/the-light-keeper",
 "title": "The Light-Keeper",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson: Appendix",
 "book_slug": "works-edinburgh-edition-appendix",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 1,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1898,
  "venue": "The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson: Appendix (1898)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1898 Appendix volume of the Edinburgh Edition. For most of these verses that is not the first printing: the volume reproduces in facsimile the Davos Press cuts and rhymes that Stevenson wrote and engraved between the autumn of 1880 and the summer of 1882 and that his stepson Lloyd Osbourne printed at the time. The volume's own bibliographical note states that only the two Moral Tales, 'Robin and Ben' and 'The Builder's Doom', are printed here for the first time. Which Davos booklet printed a given rhyme, and in what year, is not established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-louis-stevenson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlou14stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoemsandvaria00stevuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31291",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30659",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/441",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems,_by_Robert_Louis_Stevenson,_hitherto_unpublished"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 71,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The brilliant kernel of the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The flaming lightroom circles me:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I sit within a blaze of light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Held high above the dusky sea.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Far off the surf doth break and roar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along bleak miles of moonlit shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where through the tides the tumbling wave",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Falls in an avalanche of foam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drives its churnèd waters home",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up many an undercliff and cave.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The clear bell chimes: the clockworks strain:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The turning lenses flash and pass,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Frame turning within glittering frame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With frosty gleam of moving glass:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Unseen by me, each dusky hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sea-waves welter up the tower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or in the ebb subside again;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And ever and anon all night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drawn from afar by charm of light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A seabird beats against the pane.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And lastly when dawn ends the night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And belts the semi-orb of sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The tall, pale pharos in the light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Looks white and spectral as may be.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The early ebb is out: the green",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straight belt of seaweed now is seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That round the basement of the tower",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Marks out the interspace of tide;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And watching men are heavy-eyed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sleepless lips are dry and sour.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The night is over like a dream:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The seabirds cry and dip themselves;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the early sunlight, steam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The newly-bared and dripping shelves,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Around whose verge the glassy wave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With lisping wash is heard to lave;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While, on the white tower lifted high,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With yellow light in faded glass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The circling lenses flash and pass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sickly shine against the sky.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As the steady lenses circle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a frosty gleam of glass;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the clear bell chimes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the oil brims over the lip of the burner,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quiet and still at his desk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lonely light-keeper",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Holds his vigil.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lured from afar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bewildered sea-gull beats",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dully against the lantern;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet he stirs not, lifts not his head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the desk where he reads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lifts not his eyes to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The chill blind circle of night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watching him through the panes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is his country’s guardian,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The outmost sentry of peace.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is the man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who gives up all that is lovely in living",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the means to live.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Poetry cunningly gilds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The life of the Light-Keeper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Held on high in the blackness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the burning kernel of night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The seaman sees and blesses him;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Poet, deep in a sonnet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Numbers his inky fingers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fitly to praise him:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only we behold him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sitting, patient and stolid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Martyr to a salary.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}