The Lamplighter Poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

Romaticism? Don't know anything about it. I do know however that RLS was a sickly child, often ill and therefore confined to his room and bed. I think the key to this poem is in the line But I, when I am stronger. The child is telling us that he is ill and that being so condemns him to a dreary, very lonely existence, with little humn comfort, so much so that the simple clip clop of the horse's shoes on the cobbles outside brings excitement in the knowledge that the lamplighter is coming. He yearns just to be noticed by another human being - to relieve his dreadful boredom - and that even a nod of acknowledgement from the leerie would bring him comfort. A brilliant sketch, in three short verses, of a very meaningful period in the life of RLS himself. magical and sad at the same time.

i dont have comments really but i want two ask u two questions 1 st pon the summary of the poem 2 nd one how old do u think is the boy? give reosons

Romanticism is an art movement in poetry and displayed so very well here. I love romanticism - because it connects me to the writer. As young children the world is something so much different than it is as adults. It is a magical playground of delicate, wonderful things that touch us in so many different, wonderful ways. When I was a child that size, about 100 years after R.L. was that age, the world was also filled with those same wonderments. True, technology changed. But when I was 8 years old my father lobbied the city council and finally got a street-light attached to the wooden telephone pole in front of our home on a crowded city street. Everything about that was new and amazing to me. From it's shiny new aluminum casing, to its sparkling-faceted lens, the way it lit and shone the entire portion of the street there, like a chain of soft glowing spots in a solemn darkness, being about 2 blocks away form others on either side.... My father told me there is a man at the power plant whose job it was to go through and flip all the street light switches one by one, slowly working through the neighborhoods - because if he flipped all the neighborhoods on at once it would have overloaded the system..... So I indeed had a 'Leerie' also.... And every time I would see the lamp switch on just before dark I would think of him, over in the plant, traveling his wall of switches and flipping them one by one..... Romanticism is more than just an art movement - it is a connection through time and space - as I see a young boy nestled in the covers of his loft, looking out the window, hearing softly the metal clops of the 'Leerie's' horse approaching on the cobble stone, the tender squeak of a wagon wheel perhaps, and finally the man himself with his long lighted rod, poking it through the lamp, watching it come alive with a glow that turned black and gray back to green..... So peaceful those nights must have been, so utterly quiet, so calm, and without doubt incredibly romantic... Another thing of importance to note is that this is shortly after the end of the Civil War, during a time of intense reconstruction.

OK, I guess I can NOT send a message to Robert, ....wherever he may be. RIP.

And, as a kid, and later a father, I've lived where Santa Claus (and his reindeer) and The Easter Bunny have visited once a year. : ) bri

In my lifetime I've lived in houses to which coal (for my parents' furnace) , milk (for the household) , & washable diapers (for my daughter) have been delivered. : )

***** FIVE STARS I think I've watched movies of Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. bri : ) bri : )

'1890, he settled in Samoa where, alarmed at increasing European and American influence in the South Sea islands, his writing turned away from romance and adventure fiction toward a darker realism. He died of a stroke in his island home in 1894 at age 44.[2]'