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Cover of “A Child’s Garden of Verses”

A Child’s Garden of Verses

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

Shadows that grow and shrink, paper boats, going to bed in summer while it is still light: Stevenson remembers childhood in simple, musical verses. A classic for reading aloud and a perfect first book of poems.

First published
1885
Genre
Poetry
Length
66 pages · 7,920 words
Reading time
≈ 34 min
Language
English
License
Public domain

How it begins

Verses

Bed in Summer

In winter I get up at nightAnd dress by yellow candlelight.In summer, quite the other way⁠—I have to go to bed by day.I have to go to bed and seeThe birds still hopping on the tree,Or hear the grown-up people’s feetStill 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?

A Thought

It is very nice to thinkThe world is full of meat and drink,With little children saying graceIn every Christian kind of place.

At the Sea-Side

When I was down beside the sea,A wooden spade they gave to meTo dig the sandy shore.My holes were empty like a cup,In every hole the sea came up,Till it could come no more.

Young Night Thought

All night long, and every night,When my mamma puts out the light,I see the people marching by,As plain as day, before my eye.

Keep reading in the Library

This edition

A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) was first published in 1885. It is in the public domain worldwide: its author died more than a hundred years ago.

Text based on the Standard Ebooks edition (dedicated to the public domain under CC0), https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/robert-louis-stevenson/poetry. Their cover, imprint, colophon and licence pages were removed; the text and its structure were kept and restyled for this edition.

The 65 poems of A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885) were taken from Stevenson’s collected poetry, restoring the book’s original sections: The Child Alone, Garden Days and Envoys.

Original cover and design by the Arcadópolis Library.

Text source: Standard Ebooks

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