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These sixty-odd poems look at the world from the height of a child: the shadow that grows and shrinks, the sheets of a sickbed turned into a land of hills…
These sixty-odd poems look at the world from the height of a child: the shadow that grows and shrinks, the sheets of a sickbed turned into a land of hills and armies, the unfairness of going to bed in summer while it is still light, the lamplighter passing in the street at dusk.
Context and significance
Robert Louis Stevenson was often ill as a boy, and the book, published in 1885, is dedicated to his nurse, Alison Cunningham, who sat with him through long nights. The poems are simple enough to read aloud to small children and wise enough for their parents. For Stevenson's adventures, go on to Treasure Island.
About the author
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) came from a family of Edinburgh lighthouse engineers and was expected to follow them, but chose writing, despite lungs so weak he was often bedridden. He travelled constantly in search of health, married the American Fanny Osbourne and wrote Treasure Island for her son.
Kidnapped, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and A Child's Garden of Verses followed, and in 1890 he settled in Samoa, where the islanders called him Tusitala, the teller of tales. He died there at forty-four and is buried on a hilltop above his home.