A Child's Garden of Verses

Name: A Child's Garden of Verses
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Pages: about 27
Category: Literature & Fiction
Language: English
Reading time: 30 min at 250 wpm

Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 17 min at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
The rain is falling all around, It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea.

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A Child's Garden of Verses

From the opening

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