A Child's Garden of Verses

Excerpt

The Child Alone

      I The Unseen Playmate
     II My Ship and I
    III My Kingdom
     IV Picture-Books in Winter
      V My Treasures
     VI Block City
    VII The Land of Story-Books
   VIII Armies in the Fire
     IX The Little Land

Garden Days

      I Night and Day
     II Nest Eggs
    III The Flowers
     IV Summer Sun
      V The Dumb Soldier
     VI Autumn Fires
    VII The Gardener
   VIII Historical Associations

Envoys

      I To Willie and Henrietta
     II To My Mother
    III To Auntie
     IV To Minnie
      V To My Name-Child
     VI To Any Reader

A Child's Garden of Verses

                                             I
                                       Bed in Summer

  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?

                                            II
                                         A Thought

  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.

                                            III
                                      At the Sea-Side

  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.

                                            IV
                                    Young Night-Thought

  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.

                                             V
                                  Whole Duty of Children

  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....