(1887) “The Unfathomable Sea”

In 1887 Stevenson published ‘To N.V. de G.S.: The Unfathomable Sea’.

THE unfathomable sea, and time, and tears,
The deeds of heroes and the crimes of kings
Dispart us;

This is a poem about a love that could have been—one separated by a metaphorical sea. Surprisingly, in ‘The English Admirals’ (1881), an essay about sea captains, heroism, and their connection to narratives, Stevenson does not mention ‘Spens’ at all.

Excerpts from: Robert Louis Stevenson, Ballads and Other Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson. (New York: Charles Schribner’s Sons, 1895). GoogleBooks

(1896) Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes.

Stevenson certainly knew of the ballad because he mentions the ballad by lamenting all the mariners who died in the North Sea, that ‘dear road for Sir Patrick Spens and his Scots Lords’. He points out Aberdour as Spens’s departure and quotes a stanza about the women waiting for the captain and the others to return. He then writes: ‘Since Sir Patrick sailed from Aberdour, what a multitude have gone down in the North Sea!’

Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes. (New York: Macmillian and Co.,1896). p. 90. GoogleBooks