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Home  »  Stevenson, Robert Louis  »  “My Kingdom”  »  Online text

A Child’s Garden of Verses
“My Kingdom”
Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 Down by a shining water well
 I found a very little dell,
      No higher than my head.
 The heather and the gorse about
 In summer bloom were coming out,
      Some yellow and some red.
 
 I called the little pool a sea;
 The little hills were big to me;
      For I am very small.
 I made a boat, I made a town,
 I searched the caverns up and down,
      And named them one and all.
 
 And all about was mine, I said,
 The little sparrows overhead,
      The little minnows too.
 This was the world and I was king;
 For me the bees came by to sing,
      For me the swallows flew.
 
 I played there were no deeper seas,
 Nor any wider plains than these,
      Nor other kings than me.
 At last I heard my mother call
 Out from the house at evenfall,
      To call me home to tea.
 
 And I must rise and leave my dell,
 And leave my dimpled water well,
      And leave my heather blooms.
 Alas! and as my home I neared,
 How very big my nurse appeared.
      How great and cool the rooms!

 

 

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This collection of children's literature is a part of the Educational Technology Clearinghouse and is funded by various grants. Copyright 2009 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida.

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