My Shadow
Viewed 268 timesMy Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.
He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an errant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
Miscellany
Other poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (read randomly)
To you, let snow and roses
And golden locks belong.
These are the world's enslavers,
I should like to rise and go
Where the golden apples grow;--
Where below another sky
As the single pang of the blow, when the metal is m …
Rings and lives and resounds in all the bounds of t …
So the thunder above spoke w...
There are men and classes of men that stand above t …
common herd: the soldier, the sailor and the shephe …
unfrequently; the artist rar...
The human conscience has fled of late the troubleso …
domain of conduct for what I should have supposed t …
less congenial field of art:...
Of all my verse, like not a single line;
But like my title, for it is not mine.
That title from a better man I stole:
COME to me, all ye that labour; I will give your sp …
Here apart in starry quiet I will give you rest.
Come to me, ye heavy laden, sin defiled...
HERE in the quiet eve
My thankful eyes receive
The quiet light.
Berried brake and reedy island,
Heaven below, and only heaven above,
Through the sky's inverted azure
We uncommiserate pass into the night
From the loud banquet, and departing leave
A tremor in men's memories, faint and sweet
