potw: a good boy

Sep 1, 2011

We love Robert Louis Stevenson at our house! Keziah has loved Mr. Stevenson’s poems since her Liberty Girls group spent a semester studying poetry. A Child’s Garden of Verses (the version illustrated be Gyo Fujikawa is so charming!) is one of our favorite poetry books and this week’s poem comes from there.

A Good Boy
by Robert Louis Stevenson

I woke before the morning, I was happy all the day,
I never said an ugly word, but smiled and stuck to play.

And now at last the sun is going down behind the wood,
And I am very happy, for I know that I’ve been good.

My bed is waiting cool and fresh, with linen smooth and fair
And I must be off to sleepsin-by, and not forget my prayer.

I know that, till tomorrow I shall see the sun arise,
No ugly dream shall fright my mind, no ugly sight eyes.

But slumber hold me tightly till I waken in the dawn,
And hear the thrushes singing in the lilacs round the lawn.

I have no idea what sleepsin-by is, but I am hoping to find out today!