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A Child's Garden of Verses : The Reader's Library, 13

By Stevenson, Robert, Louis

Book Id: WPLBN0003575458
Format Type: PDF (eBook)
File Size: 509.06 KB.
Reproduction Date: 7/6/2015

Title:	A Child's Garden of Verses : The Reader's Library, 13
Author:	Stevenson, Robert, Louis
Volume:	The Reader's Library, 13
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Children's literature, Children's Poetry
Collections:	Poetry, Authors Community, Astronomy, Literature, Sociology, Language, Medicine
Historic Publication Date:	2015
Publisher:	William Ralph Press

Member Page:	Neil Azevedo
Citation APA MLA Chicago Stevenson, R. L. (2015). A Child's Garden of Verses : The Reader's Library, 13. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.us/

Description
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was worn in Edinburgh, Scotland, and suffered from frail health all through childhood, an affliction that would follow him into adulthood and manifest itself ultimately as tuberculosis. He initially set out to be a lawyer and was admitted to the bar in 1875, though he never practiced. He is best known for his tales Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, though he wrote a number of other stories, excellent essays, and of course poems. Constantly searching for a climate that would ease his suffering, he died quite young at the age of 44 and was buried high on Mt. Vaea in his final home of Samoa, the site of which is immortalized in the poem “Requiem” contained within these pages. I was first introduced to his timeless A Child’s Garden of Verses by my mother as a child myself, and the simple, extremely perceptive moments beautifully rendered in Stevenson’s effortless cadences and perfect rhymes went a long way, I imagine, to making me believe from an early age that poetry was the best way to explain and discover everything, and subsequently made me want to be a poet myself, or at least surround myself with poetry as much as possible. Reading these poems to my own children is one of my fondest memories of young fatherhood. I can think of no other single volume of verse that is more essential for a child’s puerile ears and curious mind.

Summary
Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) published A Child's Garden of Verses in 1885. Along with Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde it is among his best known works, and is a timeless classic of English language poetry.

Excerpt
The Land of Nod From breakfast on through all the day At home among my friends I stay, But every night I go abroad Afar into the land of Nod. All by myself I have to go, With none to tell me what to do— All alone beside the streams And up the mountain-sides of dreams. The strangest things are there for me, Both things to eat and things to see, And many frightening sights abroad Till morning in the land of Nod. Try as I like to find the way, I never can get back by day, Nor can remember plain and clear The curious music that I hear.

Table of Contents
“Introduction A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES To Alison Cunningham Bed in Summer A Thought At the Seaside Young Night Thought Whole Duty of Children Rain Pirate Story Foreign Lands Windy Nights Travel Singing Looking Forward A Good Play Where Go the Boats? Auntie’s Skirts The Land of Counterpane The Land of Nod My Shadow System A Good Boy Escape at Bedtime Marching Song The Cow Happy Thought The Wind Keepsake Mill Good and Bad Children Foreign Children The Sun’s Travels The Lamplighter My Bed Is a Boat The Moon The Swing Time to Rise Looking-Glass River Fairy Bread From a Railway Carriage Winter-Time The Hayloft Farewell to the Farm Northwest Passage I. Good Night II. Shadow March III. In Port The Child Alone 1. The Unseen Playmate 2. My Ship and I 3. My Kingdom 4. Picture-Books in Winter 5. My Treasures 6. Block City 7. The Land of Story-Books 8. Armies in the Fire 9. The Little Land Garden Days 1. Night and Day 2. Nest Eggs 3. The Flowers 4. Summer Sun 5. The Dumb Soldier 6. Autumn Fires 7. The Gardener 8. Historical Associations Envoys 1. To Willie and Henrietta 2. To My Mother 3. To Auntie 4. To Minnie 5. To My Name-Child 6. To Any Reader UNDERWOODS I. Envoy II. A Song of the Road III. The Canoe Speaks IV. “It is the season...” V. The House Beautiful VI. A Visit from the Sea VII. To a Gardener VIII. To Minnie (With a Hand-Glass) IX. To K. De M. X. To N. V. De G. S. XI. To Will. H. Low XII. To Mrs. Will. H. Low XIII. To H. F. Brown XIV. To Andrew Lang XV. Et Tu In Arcadia Vixisti XVI. To W. E. Henley XVII. Henry James XVIII. The Mirror Speaks XIX. Katharine XX. To F. J. S. XXI. Requiem XXII. The Celestial Surgeon XXIII. Our Lady of the Snows XXIV. “Not yet, my soul...” XXV. “It is not yours, O mother, to complain...” XXVI. The Sick Child XXVII. In Memoriam F. A. S. XXVIII. To My Father XXIX. In the States XXX. A Portrait XXXI. “Sing clearlier, Muse...” XXXII. A Camp XXXIII. The Country of the Camisards XXXIV. Skerryvore XXXV. Skerryvore: The Parallel XXXVI. “My house, I say...” XXXVII. “My body which my dungeon is...” XXXVIII. “Say not of me that weakly I declined...” UNDERWOODS: II (In Scots) Table of Common Scottish Vowel Sounds I. The Maker to Posterity II. Ille Terrarum III. “When aince Aprile has fairly come...” IV. A Mile an’ a Bittock V. A Lowden Sabbath Morn VI. The Spaewife VII. The Blast—1875 VIII. The Counterblast—1886 IX. The Counterblast Ironical X. Their Laureate to an Academy Class Dinner Club XI. Embro Hie Kirk XII. The Scotman’s Return from Abroad XIII. “Late in the nicht...” XIV. My Conscience! XV. To Doctor John Brown XVI. “It’s an owercome sooth for age an’ youth...” About the Editor Also from William Ralph Press