Sonnets on a Prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson
by Margaret Dimock

During the four years preceding his death at the age of forty-four, Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife and stepson lived on a Samoan island, where the favorable climate sustained him in resisting the respiratory illness that had plagued him since early childhood.

His home, on 300 acres, was a partriarchal establishment, and his household included a considerable number of native servants, who knew him as Tusitala - "teller of tales." Stevenson was hard at work on his writing career during this period, but every evening he led a devotional service (Bible readings, hymns, and prayers) for the entire household.

One of the beautiful prayers composed by Stevenson for this worship begins, "Lord, behold our family here assembled." I have always loved this prayer, and used to pass out copies to guests who gathered with us for Thanksgiving dinner, that we might all read it in unison. Yet I always felt the sentences and phrases flowed by too fast; I wished I could linger over each one, savoring the sounds and allowing the rich meanings to speak to me in depth.

This was the motivation which led me to write a series of sonnets, one on each section of the prayer (somewhat as Kenneth Boulding did forty years ago in the Nayler sonnets under the title "There is a Spirit"). The effort has been richly rewarding to me, and I hope others will find encouragement and inspiration here also.

          Margaret Dimock
          August 1985