Poem for September

Elephant Family - Schnitkunst by Nigel A JAMES

Poem for September

Robert Louis Stevenson didn’t only write Treasure Island, he wrote many fine poems, as well. Foreign Lands is one of his nicest works for children, and, considering, that all of us are really children at heart, here it is,-

From Child’s Garden of Verses

Foreign Lands
by Robert Louis Stevenson


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 into 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 road on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the play things come alive.

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