Underwoods

Underwoods is Robert Louis Stevenson in poetic mode, proving that the man who gave us pirates, doubles, adventures, and moral unease could also turn his hand to verse with considerable elegance and only a modest amount of Victorian melancholy.

First published in the 1880s and presented here in a 1903 Chatto & Windus edition, this collection gathers poems in both English and Scots, ranging from reflective pieces to lighter lyrics, with Stevenson’s usual mixture of charm, restlessness, and sharp observation. It is not the Stevenson of treasure maps and peg-legged menace, but the quieter Stevenson: thoughtful, musical, and occasionally staring at mortality from a tastefully literary angle.

There is something pleasingly ironic about Underwoods as a title. It sounds like one might stumble upon it in a damp clearing, yet inside is the carefully shaped work of a writer who knew exactly what he was doing. These are poems of memory, place, longing, wit, and language itself, written by a man who was always somewhere between home and elsewhere.

This 1903 Chatto & Windus edition is in Good condition, with the expected signs of age but plenty of dignity left in it. A lovely item for Stevenson collectors, lovers of Victorian poetry, or anyone who wants the quieter side of a writer more often remembered for making boys dream of islands and respectable adults worry about split personalities.

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