A Child's Garden of Verses E-Book

Robert Louis Stevenson

• Herausgeber: E-BOOKARAMA
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

First published in 1885 under the title Penny Whistles, "A Child's Garden of Verses" is a collection of poetry for children by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, a collection that concerns childhood, illness, play, and solitude. Stevenson dedicated the poems to his nurse Alison Cunningham, who cared for him during his many childhood illnesses. The collection includes some of Stevenson’s most famous poems, including “The Land of Counterpane”, “My Shadow" and “The Lamplighter”.

Many of the poems describe the imaginative life of the child. In “Pirate Story”, for example, the garden becomes the setting for pirate adventure. “The Land of Nod” describes the dream land that children can only visit when they are asleep.

Some of the poems, particularly those in “The Child Alone” section evoke the loneliness of being young, ill and without companions (certainly Stevenson was here remembering his own childhood). Children in these poems (for example “The Unseen Playmate”. “My Ship and I”, and “My Kingdom”) use their imaginations to entertain themselves, rather than the company of a friend.

Poems in the “Garden Days” section of the collection are concerned with nature and the seasons. Other poems in the book are moral reminders to children. For example, “Good and Bad Children” warns that children who behave badly will be disliked as adults.

The “Envoys” section of poetry consists of poems dedicated to Stevenson’s friends and family, particularly those who he spent time with at Colinton Manse when he was a child. His experiences at the manse playing in the garden inspired many of the poems in the collection.

In the last poem of the collection, “To Any Reader”, Stevenson reminds his readers that all children eventually grow up, and that these poems are memories of a time that has past. This poem also serves to show that A Child’s Garden of Verses is not just a book for children, but addresses adult themes like loss and loneliness.

Leseprobe

Table of contents

A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES

To Alison Cunningham

Bed In Summer

Young Night Thought

Rain

My Shadow

Time to Rise

At the Seaside

Windy-Nights

Pirate Story

Whole Duty Of Children

Foreign Lands

System

A Good Play

The Land Of Counterpane

A Good Boy

Looking Forward

The Swing

Good And Bad Children

Marching Song

Travel

Where Go The Boats?

Escape At Bedtime

From A Railway Carriage

The Wind

Auntie's Skirts

Happy Thought

The Cow

My Bed Is A Boat

The Land Of Nod

Fairy Bread

Keepsake Mill

Winter-Time

Looking-Glass River

The Sun's Travels

The Lamplighter

Foreign Children

The Moon

The Hayloft

Farewell To The Farm

A Thought

Singing

North-West Passage

To My Mother

A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES

Robert Louis Stevenson

To Alison Cunningham

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!