A Child’s Garden of Verses

A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885.

A Child's Garden of Verses is a collection of poetry for children about darkness and solitude. The collection first appeared in 1885 under the title Penny Whistles, but has been reprinted many times, often in illustrated versions. It contains about 65 poems including the cherished classics "Foreign Children," "The Lamplighter," "The Land of Counterpane," "Bed in Summer," "My Shadow" and "The Swing."


Robert Louis Stevension (1850-1894). Though the originality and power of Stevenson’s writings was recognised from the first by a select few, it was only slowly that he caught the ear of the general public. The tide may be said to have turned with the publication of Treasure Island in 1882, which at once gave him an assured place among the foremost imaginative writers of the day.
His greatest power is, however, shown in those works which deal with Scotland in the 18th century, such as Kidnapped, and in those, e.g., The Child’s Garden of Verse which exhibit his extraordinary insight into the psychology of child-life. Stevenson’s style is singularly fascinating, graceful, various, subtle, and with a charm all its own.