Read "The Old World Moans and Topes" by Robert Louis Stevenson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The old world moans and topes, / Is restless and ill at ease; / And the old-world politicians / Prescribe for the new disease.
I have stooped my head to listen / (Its voice is far from strong)39
For the burden of its moanings / As it topes all night long.
I have watched a patient vigil / Beside its fever bed, / And I think that I can tell you / The burden of what it said: --
"As sick folk long for morning / And long for night again, / So long for noble objects / The hearts of noble men.
"They long and grope about them, / With feverish hands they grope / For objects of endeavour, / And exercise for hope.
"And they shall be our heroes / And be our Avatar, / Who shall either reach the objects / Or tell us what they are. "