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About Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Nov. 13, 1850. His father was a prosperous civil engineer, and the boy showed interest in that profession. Later, however, he decided to study law instead. Stevenson attended the University of Edinburgh and was admitted to the bar in 1875.

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You are here: Home » British/American Poets » Robert Louis Stevenson » The Vanquished Knight


Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

The Vanquished Knight

I have left all upon the shameful field,
Honour and Hope, my God, and all but life;
Spurless, with sword reversed and dinted shield,
Degraded and disgraced, I leave the strife.
From him that hath not, shall there not be taken
E'en that he hath, when he deserts the strife?
Life left by all life's benefits forsaken,
O keep the promise, Lord, and take the life.
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Related Poets

  • Rudyard Kipling — contemporary (Stevenson praised Kipling as the most promising young writer of the era)
  • William Blake — Pioneered child-speaker poetry in Songs of Innocence (1789)
  • William Wordsworth — Shared interest in how perception shapes experience, though Stevenson's approach is lighter
  • Kahlil Gibran — Shared concern with spiritual surrender and the limitations of human will
  • William Ernest Henley — literary friendship (Close literary collaborator; Invictus shares thematic ground with The Vagabond)
  • Emily Dickinson — Shared themes of faith and nature
  • Edgar Allan Poe — influence (Later poet influenced by Poe's Gothic and fantasy tradition)
  • Lewis Carroll — contemporary (Victorian children's-verse contemporary; A Child's Garden of Verses parallels the Alice songs)

More by Robert Louis Stevenson

  1. Heather Ale
  2. Swing
  3. Bed In Summer
  4. Travel
  5. Rain

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