Article #438-1 | Gutenberg Articles

Excerpt

Excerpt from Underwoods, by Robert Louis Stevenson

MY body which my dungeon is,
And yet my parks and palaces:—
Which is so great that there I go
All the day long to and fro,
And when the night begins to fall
Throw down my bed and sleep, while all
The building hums with wakefulness—
Even as a child of savages
When evening takes her on her way,
(She having roamed a summer’s day
Along the mountain-sides and scalp)
Sleeps in an antre of that alp:—
Which is so broad and high that there,
As in the topless fields of air,
My fancy soars like to a kite
And faints in the blue infinite:—
Which is so strong, my strongest throes
And the rough world’s besieging blows
Not break it, and so weak withal,
Death ebbs and flows in its loose wall
As the green sea in fishers’ nets,
And tops its topmost parapets:—
Which is so wholly mine that I
Can wield its whole artillery,
And mine so little, that my soul
Dwells in perpetual control,
And I but think and speak and do
As my dead fathers move me to:—
If this born body of my bones
The beggared soul so barely owns,
What money passed from hand to hand,
What creeping custom of the land,
What deed of author or assign,
Can make a house a thing of mine?

XXXVIII

SAY not of me that weakly I declined
The labours of my sires, and fled the sea,
The towers we founded and the lamps we lit,
To play at home with paper like a child.
But rather say: In the afternoon of time
A strenuous family dusted from its hands
The sand of granite, and beholding far
Along the sounding coast its pyramids
And tall memorials catch the dying sun,
Smiled well content, and to this childish task
Around the fire addressed its evening hours.

Explanation

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Underwoods (1887) is a collection of poems divided into two books: Book I contains original verse, while Book II consists of translations and imitations. The excerpts you’ve provided come from Book I, which explores themes of duality, human limitation, inheritance, and the tension between the self and external forces. Stevenson, best known for Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, often grappled with the contradictions of human nature, and these poems reflect his introspective and philosophical side.

The two poems you’ve shared—XXVII (the longer meditation on the body) and XXXVIII (the defense of artistic labor)—are linked by their preoccupation with ownership, legacy, and the boundaries of the self. Below, I’ll analyze each in detail, focusing on their language, imagery, and thematic depth, while also situating them in Stevenson’s broader concerns.

Poem XXVII: "My body which my dungeon is"

Summary & Themes

This poem is a meditation on the paradoxical nature of the human body: it is at once a prison ("dungeon") and a realm of boundless possibility ("parks and palaces"). The speaker explores the body’s dualities—its strength and fragility, its autonomy and its submission to external forces (heredity, death, society). The poem ultimately questions the very idea of possession, asking how one can truly "own" anything—even one’s own body—when control is so tenuous.

Key themes:

The Body as Prison and Paradise – The body is both a confining space and a vast landscape for the imagination.
Mortality and Transience – The body is strong yet permeable to death, like a fisher’s net filled with the "green sea."
Heredity and Determinism – The speaker’s actions are dictated by "dead fathers," suggesting genetic or cultural inheritance limits free will.
The Illusion of Ownership – If the body itself is barely "owned" by the soul, how can material possessions (like a house) be truly ours?

Literary Devices & Analysis

Extended Metaphor & Conceit
- The body is compared to:
  - A dungeon (imprisonment, suffering)
  - Parks and palaces (freedom, grandeur)
  - An alp’s cave (shelter for a wandering child)
  - A fortress (strength against "besieging blows")
  - A fisher’s net (fragility, permeability to death)
- These metaphors accumulate to create a paradox: the body is both invincible and vulnerable, ours and not ours.
Imagery of Space & Confinement
- The body is vast ("topless fields of air," "building hums with wakefulness") yet confining ("dungeon," "loose wall").
- The kite (fancy soaring) contrasts with the net (death seeping in), reinforcing the tension between freedom and entrapment.
Personification & Agency
- The body is active ("I go to and fro," "wield its whole artillery") but also passive ("my dead fathers move me to").
- The soul is "beggared"—it barely owns the body, let alone external things.
Rhetorical Question & Irony
- The final stanza undermines the idea of property:
  "What money passed from hand to hand, / What creeping custom of the land, / What deed of author or assign, / Can make a house a thing of mine?"
- Legal and social constructs (deeds, customs) are meaningless compared to the body’s inherent, yet unstable, "ownership."
Rhythm & Structure
- The poem uses short, rhythmic lines (often tetrameter) with a refrain-like structure ("Which is so..."), giving it a meditative, incantatory quality.
- The dashes create pauses, mimicking contemplation.

Significance & Context

Stevenson, who suffered from tuberculosis, often wrote about the body as both a burden and a vessel of experience. His illness made him acutely aware of physical limitation.
The poem reflects 19th-century anxieties about determinism (influenced by Darwinism and psychology). If we’re shaped by heredity ("dead fathers"), how free are we?
The rejection of material ownership aligns with Stevenson’s Romantic and Stoic influences—true value lies in experience, not possessions.

Poem XXXVIII: "Say not of me that weakly I declined"

Summary & Themes

This poem is a defense of the artist’s life, framed as a rebuttal to those who might accuse the speaker of abandoning his family’s legacy (likely engineering or seafaring, given Stevenson’s own family history in lighthouse design). The speaker argues that after generations of physical labor ("the sand of granite"), his family has earned the right to rest and create ("this childish task / Around the fire").

Key themes:

Art vs. Labor – Writing ("play at home with paper") is not weakness but a natural evolution after strenuous work.
Legacy & Time – The "afternoon of time" suggests a maturity where creativity replaces toil.
Justification of the Imaginative Life – The poem elevates art as a valid, even noble, pursuit, not a frivolous escape.
Generational Shift – The "strenuous family" has built its monuments; now, it’s time for reflection.

Literary Devices & Analysis

Contrast & Reversal
- The poem inverts expectations:
  - What seems "weak" (writing) is strong (a deliberate choice).
  - What seems "childish" (paper and fire) is wise (the fruit of labor).
- The pyramids and memorials (symbols of past labor) now catch the dying sun, suggesting their time is passing.
Metaphor of Time & Work
- "Afternoon of time" – The family’s history is in its later stages, ripe for artistic rather than physical work.
- "Dusted from its hands / The sand of granite" – A tactile metaphor for completing hard labor (granite = endurance; dusting = finality).
Tone & Diction
- The poem begins with a command ("Say not of me..."), asserting authority.
- "Smiled well content" – The family’s satisfaction contrasts with potential critics’ disdain.
- "Childish task" – Ironically frames writing as play, but the context suggests it’s a earned privilege.
Imagery of Light & Fire
- "Dying sun" – The past is glorious but fading.
- "Around the fire" – Writing is a warm, communal act, not isolation.
- Fire symbolizes inspiration, storytelling, and legacy (passing the torch).
Historical & Biographical Context
- Stevenson’s family built lighthouses (his father and grandfather were engineers). His choice to write was seen as a betrayal of tradition.
- The poem justifies his artistic path, framing it as a natural progression, not a rejection.

Significance

This poem is autobiographical, reflecting Stevenson’s struggle for artistic legitimacy.
It challenges Victorian expectations of masculinity and labor—writing is not "weak" but a higher form of contribution.
The shift from physical to intellectual work mirrors broader 19th-century changes (industrialization giving way to artistic movements like Aestheticism).

Connection Between the Two Poems

Ownership & Legacy
- XXVII questions if we own anything (even our bodies).
- XXXVIII claims artistic work as a rightful inheritance, not a dereliction of duty.
Body vs. Creation
- The body in XXVII is a limited, contested space.
- In XXXVIII, the speaker transcends physical labor through imagination.
Defiance of Expectations
- Both poems reject conventional values:
  - XXVII undermines material possession.
  - XXXVIII defends art as valid work.
Stevenson’s Personal Struggle
- His illness (XXVII’s frail body) and artistic calling (XXXVIII’s defense) are intertwined.
- Both poems assert autonomy—whether over the body’s limits or the choice to write.

Conclusion: Why These Poems Matter

Stevenson’s excerpts are profound meditations on human agency:

XXVII dismantles the illusion of control, showing how even our bodies are borrowed, temporary, and influenced by forces beyond us.
XXXVIII reclaims agency by elevating art as a legitimate, even necessary, human endeavor.

Together, they reflect Stevenson’s Romantic individualism and his struggle with inheritance—both biological (his sickly body) and cultural (his family’s expectations). The poems ask:

What do we truly possess?
How do we justify our choices in the face of tradition?
Is creation a form of freedom or just another kind of confinement?

In their lyrical complexity and philosophical depth, these poems transcend their time, speaking to anyone who has ever felt trapped by their body, their past, or the weight of others’ expectations.

Questions

Question 1

The speaker’s description of the body as both a "dungeon" and "parks and palaces" primarily serves to:

A. Illustrate the psychological toll of chronic illness on creative expression.
B. Establish a paradoxical framework for interrogating the limits of human autonomy.
C. Critique the materialism of Victorian society through corporeal metaphor.
D. Suggest that physical confinement is a prerequisite for imaginative freedom.
E. Argue that the body’s duality is resolved through acceptance of mortality.

Question 2

The imagery of the "fisher’s nets" in the third stanza most effectively reinforces which of the following ideas?

A. The body’s resilience against external threats is ultimately illusory.
B. Death’s inevitability permeates even the most fortified aspects of human existence.
C. Human agency is as insubstantial as the objects it seeks to control.
D. The soul’s relationship to the body mirrors the precarity of laborers’ lives.
E. The cyclical nature of life and death is best understood through maritime metaphor.

Question 3

In the final stanza of Poem XXVII, the rhetorical question "Can make a house a thing of mine?" functions primarily to:

A. Dismiss legal and social constructs as irrelevant to true ownership.
B. Highlight the absurdity of equating material wealth with personal identity.
C. Extend the poem’s central paradox to critique the illusion of property rights.
D. Suggest that hereditary wealth is the only legitimate form of possession.
E. Imply that artistic creation is the sole means of transcending physical limits.

Question 4

The shift in tone between the first and second stanzas of Poem XXXVIII ("Say not of me..." to "But rather say...") is best described as moving from:

A. Defensiveness to resignation.
B. Indignation to nostalgia.
C. Apology to justification.
D. Humility to arrogance.
E. Rebuttal to redefinition.

Question 5

The "childish task" in Poem XXXVIII is framed as an act of:

A. Deliberate subversion of generational expectations.
B. Escapism from the burdens of familial legacy.
C. Inevitable decline in the face of mortality.
D. Playful experimentation with artistic form.
E. Earned repose after collective labor.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: B

Why B is most correct: The "dungeon" and "parks and palaces" metaphor establishes a fundamental paradox—the body is simultaneously a site of confinement and liberty. This duality is not merely descriptive but structural, serving as the poem’s framework for exploring human autonomy’s limits. The speaker’s inability to fully "own" even their own body underscores the tension between agency and constraint, which is the poem’s central philosophical inquiry.