A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
To Alison Cunningham
From Her Boy
For the long nights you lay awake
And watched for my unworthy sake:
For your most comfortable hand
That led me through the uneven land:
For all the story-books you read:
For all the pains you comforted:
For all you pitied, all you bore,
In sad and happy days of yore:–
My second Mother, my first Wife,
The angel of my infant life–
From the sick child, now well and old,
Take, nurse, the little book you hold!
And grant it, Heaven, that all who read
May find as dear a nurse at need,
And every child who lists my rhyme,
In the bright, fireside, nursery clime,
May hear it in as kind a voice
As made my childish days rejoice!
R. L. S.
Contents
To Alison Cunningham
I Bed in Summer
II A Thought
III At the Sea-Side
IV Young Night-Thought
V Whole Duty of Children
VI Rain
VII Pirate Story
VIII Foreign Lands
IX Windy Nights
X Travel
XI Singing
XII Looking Forward
XIII A Good Play
XIV Where Go the Boats?
XV Auntie’s Skirts
XVI The Land of Counterpane
XVII The Land of Nod
XVIII My Shadow
XIX System
XX A Good Boy
XXI Escape at Bedtime
XXII Marching Song
XXIII The Cow
XXIV The Happy Thought
XXV The Wind
XXVI Keepsake Mill
XXVII Good and Bad Children
XXVIII Foreign Children
XXIX The Sun Travels
XXX The Lamplighter
XXXI My Bed is a Boat
XXXII The Moon
XXXIII The Swing
XXXIV Time to Rise
XXXV Looking-Glass River
XXXVI Fairy Bread
XXXVII From a Railway Carriage
XXXVIII Winter-Time
XXXIX The Hayloft
XL Farewell to the Farm
XLI North-West Passage
1. Good-Night
2. Shadow March
3. In Port
The Child Alone
I The Unseen Playmate
II My Ship and I
III My Kingdom
IV Picture-Books in Winter
V My Treasures
VI Block City
VII The Land of Story-Books
VIII Armies in the Fire
IX The Little Land
Garden Days
I Night and Day
II Nest Eggs
III The Flowers
IV Summer Sun
V The Dumb Soldier
VI Autumn Fires
VII The Gardener
VIII Historical Associations
Envoys
I To Willie and Henrietta
II To My Mother
III To Auntie
IV To Minnie
V To My Name-Child
VI To Any Reader
A Child’s Garden of Verses
I
Bed in Summer
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
II
A Thought
It is very nice to think
The world is full of meat and drink,
With little children saying grace
In every Christian kind of place.
III
At the Sea-Side
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.
IV
Young Night-Thought
All night long and every night,
When my mama puts out the light,
I see the people marching by,
As plain as day before my eye.
Armies and emperor and kings,
All carrying different kinds of things,
And marching in so grand a way,
You never saw the like by day.
So fine a show was never seen
At the great circus on the green;
For every kind of beast and man
Is marching in that caravan.
As first they move a little slow,
But still the faster on they go,
And still beside me close I keep
Until we reach the town of Sleep.
V
Whole Duty of Children
A child should always say what’s true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table;
At least as far as he is able.
VI
Rain
The rain is falling all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.
VII
Pirate Story
Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,
Three of us abroad in the basket on the lea.
Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring,
And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.
Where shall we adventure, to-day that we’re afloat,
Wary of the weather and steering by a star?
Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat,
To Providence, or Babylon or off to Malabar?
Hi! but here’s a squadron a-rowing on the sea–
Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar!
Quick, and we’ll escape them, they’re as mad as they can be,
The wicket is the harbour and the garden is the shore.
VIII
Foreign Lands
Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad in foreign lands.
I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
I saw the dimpling river pass
And be the sky’s blue looking-glass;
The dusty roads go up and down
With people tramping in to town.
If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships,
To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.
IX
Windy Nights
Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by.
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he.
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again.
X
Travel
I should like to rise and go
Where the golden apples grow;–
Where below another sky
Parrot islands anchored lie,
And, watched by cockatoos and goats,
Lonely Crusoes building boats;–
Where in sunshine reaching out
Eastern cities, miles about,
Are with mosque and minaret
Among sandy gardens set,
And the rich goods from near and far
Hang for sale in the bazaar;–
Where the Great Wall round China goes,
And on one side the desert blows,
And with the voice and bell and drum,
Cities on the other hum;–
Where are forests hot as fire,
Wide as England, tall as a spire,
Full of apes and cocoa-nuts
And the negro hunters’ huts;–
Where the knotty crocodile
Lies and blinks in the Nile,
And the red flamingo flies
Hunting fish before his eyes;–
Where in jungles near and far,
Man-devouring tigers are,
Lying close and giving ear
Lest the hunt be drawing near,
Or a comer-by be seen
Swinging in the palanquin;–
Where among the desert sands
Some deserted city stands,
All its children, sweep and prince,
Grown to manhood ages since,
Not a foot in street or house,
Not a stir of child or mouse,
And when kindly falls the night,
In all the town no spark of light.
There I’ll come when I’m a man
With a camel caravan;
Light a fire in the gloom
Of some dusty dining room;
See the pictures on the walls,
Heroes, fights and festivals;
And in a corner find the toys
Of the old Egyptian boys.
XI
Singing
Of speckled eggs the birdie sings
And nests among the trees;
The sailor sings of ropes and things
In ships upon the seas.
The children sing in far Japan,
The children sing in Spain;
The organ with the organ man
Is singing in the rain.
XII
Looking Forward
When I am grown to man’s estate
I shall be very proud and great,
And tell the other girls and boys
Not to meddle with my toys.
XIII
A Good Play
We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of sofa pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.
We took a saw and several nails,
And water in the nursery pails;
And Tom said, “Let us also take
An apple and a slice of cake;”–
Which was enough for Tom and me
To go a-sailing on, till tea.
We sailed along for days and days,
And had the very best of plays;
But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,
So there was no one left but me.
XIV
Where Go the Boats?
Dark brown is the river,
Golden is the sand.
It flows along for ever,