A speaker boasts of possessing a rare dual gift, commanding both the visual arts and the written word with equal skill and ease. He places himself among an elite company of ambidextrous masters of artistic creation, and takes pride in the fact that everything he produces finds ready commercial reward in the marketplace. Emboldened by this fortunate condition, he roams freely through natural settings — meadows, forests, and streams — from morning until evening, following wherever inspiration leads him. Two muse figures, likened to a pair of maiden aunts, accompany him throughout his wanderings. One presides over engraving and visual craft, the other over song and verse. Together they guide, encourage, and sustain his work, each lending her particular energy to the corresponding art form he practices. The tone is gently self-mocking and wry. The grand claims of superiority and commercial success, the slightly absurd domestic image of the two aunt-like muses trailing through the dewy countryside, and the breezy confidence of the speaker all combine to suggest a playful irony rather than genuine self-congratulation. The poem functions as a light-hearted introduction or preface, establishing a persona who is talented, pleasantly vain, and not entirely serious about his own boasting. The natural world serves as his studio and sanctuary, and the dual muses as his cheerful, if faintly comic, companions in creative life.
By Robert Louis Stevenson · First published 1881 · Genre: Poetry, Literary Criticism, Essay