Sale 219 Lot 605

ON A YOUTHFUL PORTRAIT OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: TWO MANUSCRIPT POEMS SIGNED JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY, WITH PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPH Framed manuscript display comprising of a pencil-written poem (or poems?) each on a separate small sheet and signed "James Whitcomb Riley" at the lower right of the right-hand sheet, mounted beneath a vintage profile portrait photograph. The left sheet is titled "On a Youthful Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson" and is written in an eight-line verse; the right sheet is a companion eight-line poem ruminating on the same portrait. Framed. Not examined out of frame. Frame: 13.5 x 8 inches
$100-120

Here is my transcription of the two handwritten pencil panels.

Left panel

On a Youthful Portrait of
Robert Louis Stevenson.

A face of youth mature; a mouth of tender,
Sad human sympathy, yet something stoic
In clasp of lips: wide eyes of calmest splendor,
And brow serenely ample and heroic.—
The features—all—lit with a soul ideal...
O visionary boy! what were you seeing,
What hearing as you stood thus midst the real
Ere yet one master-work of yours had being?

Right panel

Is’t a foolish fancy that we humor?—
Investing daringly with life and spirit
This youthful portrait of you ere our rumor
Of your great future spoke that men might hear it?—
Is’t a fancy, or your first of glories,
That you were listening, and the camera drew you
Hearing the voices of your untold stories
And all your lovely poems calling to you?

— James Whitcomb Riley