The Lamplighter

Since my days as a student in this city (astonishingly some 40 and more years ago) and perhaps from even earlier as a child visiting my grandparents in Goldenacre I have never been able to walk the Georgian streets of Edinburgh on an autumn or winter night without, at some stage, thinking of this poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in 1885.

The Lamplighter

MY tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;
It’s time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.

Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,
And my papa’s a banker and as rich as he can be;
But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I’m to do
O Leerie, I’ll go round at night and light the lamps with you!

For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light;
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night!