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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 17760


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'The authorship of these beautiful verses has been most truculently fought about; but whoever wrote them (and it seems as if this Logan had) they are lovely. What time the pea puts on the bloom Though fliest the vocal vale, An annual guest, in other lands Another spring to hail. Sweet bird! thy bower is ever green, The sky is ever clear; Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, No winter in thy year. O could I fly, I'd fly with thee! We'd make on joyful wing Our annual visit o'er the globe, Companions of the spring.'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

4 Oct 1873

Country:

Scotland

Time

evening: 8 pm

Place:

specific address: 17 Heriot Row, Edinburgh

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown


Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

writer

Religion:

atheist

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

Michael Bruce

Title:

Ode to the Cuckoo

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

17760

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford Booth

Title:

The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

1

Page:

330

Additional Comments:

additional editor Ernest Mehew. Letter to Frances Sitwell.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford Booth (ed.), The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, (New Haven and London, 1994), 1, p. 330, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17760, accessed: 05 October 2024


Additional Comments:

RLS believes the poem to have been written by John Logan (as does Arthur Quiller-Couch in The Oxford Book of English Verse and www.wikisource.org), but the footnote p 330 Booth/Mehew and also the Wikipedia entry on Michael Bruce attributes it to Bruce and that Logan appropriated it as his own. Hence RLS's comments about the authorship. For this RED entry I have attributed it to Bruce.

   
   
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