Build a Better Workplace

What can a poet and a lamplighter teach us about work and life? Quite a bit, if we take time to read between the lines.

Born in 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson endured a childhood full of sickness. Stuck indoors most days, he became an avid reader. As an adult, he turned to writing, producing classics like Jekyll and Hyde and Treasure Island.

In his poem “The Lamplighter,” Stevenson has us join him as he looks out the window from his boyhood home in Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s getting dark, and he’s watching the lamplighter fire up the outdoor oil lamps. It looks like a fine job to the youngster. “When I am stronger,” he says, “I’ll go round with you.”

Is Stevenson talking about the job in a literal sense — or about something more? Is he writing about himself — or about all of us?

Perhaps we can all be lamplighters. We can serve as informal coaches, helping others gain a new light of understanding. We can strive to turn on our own light of learning and discovery. We can cast a warm glow of kindness.

It takes work, to be sure. But a little light can make a big difference.

THE LAMPLIGHTER

by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

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!
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