Requiem
By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Beloved for his children’s literature and Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson was also a prolific poet and travel essayist. Written in 1880, Requiem was engraved upon his gravestone in Hawaii, where the poet spent the last ten or so years of his life.
"Requiem" by Robert Louis Stevenson
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
I didn’t know what the word requiem actually meant until I looked it up today. I knew that a lot of art pieces used it in the title, but that was about it. Turns out it’s original meaning is ‘a mass held for the repose of the souls of the dead.’ Then that evolved to included music that would be included in such a mass and eventually to include any act of remembrance for the dead.
I love this poem for its stubborn simplicity. Life is good (“glad did I live”) it insists, but life isn’t everything. In fact, this world isn’t our home. In this world, we are sailors and hunters. Ocean journeys may be exhilarating, and hunting may be profitable, but neither are sufficient. And that is what life is, exhilarating, profitable, and insufficient. Upon reflection, I wonder if he is punning on the word “will”. Yes, he distributed his belongings, but I think he laid down with an intentionality, and end in mind. He saw in death a purpose. A home.