{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/to-n-v-de-g-s",
 "title": "To N. V. de G. S.",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Underwoods",
 "book_slug": "underwoods",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 10,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1887,
  "venue": "Underwoods (1887)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/underwoods00stevrich"
  ]
 },
 "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": {
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  "n_stanzas": 1,
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  "longest_line_chars": 50,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The unfathomable sea, and time, and tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deeds of heroes and the crimes of kings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dispart us; and the river of events",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has, for an age of years, to east and west",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More widely borne our cradles. Thou to me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Art foreign, as when seamen at the dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Descry a land far off, and know not which.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So I approach uncertain; so I cruise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round thy mysterious islet, and behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surf and great mountains and loud river-bars,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from the shore hear inland voices call.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strange is the seaman’s heart; he hopes, he fears;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Draws closer and sweeps wider from that coast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Last, his rent sail refits, and to the deep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His shattered prow uncomforted puts back.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet as he goes he ponders at the helm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of that bright island; where he feared to touch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His spirit re-adventures; and for years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where by his wife he slumbers safe at home,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thoughts of that land revisit him; he sees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The eternal mountains beckon, and awakes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yearning for that far home that might have been.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}