Happy Birthday Katriona_s!

[anteros_lmc]

A poem for your birthday from Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, one of my favourite books from when I was very small :)



There's a little gift on its way to you but I only managed to put it in the post on Thursday so it will be a belated birthday present!

Comments

[elin-gregory.livejournal.com]

I remember that book. Such lovely illustrations. I also remember having to learn a verse of that poem to recite in school.

Happy birthday Katriona_S

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I didn't have this edition as a child, a friend gave me the facsimile when I was a student. I loved the poems though and learned several when I was wee, although I can't remember if I learned them in school or just picked them up by reading them over and over again! I particularly love The Land of Nod :)

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

The one abut the boys that sneak off to the mill is a fave of mine:

27. Keepsake Mill

OVER the borders, a sin without pardon,
Breaking the branches and crawling below,
Out through the breach in the wall of the garden,
Down by the banks of the river, we go.

Here is the mill with the humming of thunder, 5
Here is the weir with the wonder of foam,
Here is the sluice with the race running under—
Marvellous places, though handy to home!

Sounds of the village grow stiller and stiller,
Stiller the note of the birds on the hill; 10
Dusty and dim are the eyes of the miller,
Deaf are his ears with the moil of the mill.

Years may go by, and the wheel in the river
Wheel as it wheels for us, children, to-day,
Wheel and keep roaring and foaming for ever 15
Long after all of the boys are away.

Home from the Indies and home from the ocean,
Heroes and soldiers we all shall come home;
Still we shall find the old mill wheel in motion,
Turning and churning that river to foam. 20

You with the bean that I gave when we quarrelled,
I with your marble of Saturday last,
Honoured and old and all gaily apparelled,
Here we shall meet and remember the past.


Of course it reminds me of all the boys who went for soldiers and did not come home.

And it makes me think of RLS himself who never had robust health, but give so much to all of the world.

This poem chokes me up every time-- but now it also reminds me of Katriona, and that is a wonderful thing.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

This poem chokes me up every time
Me too, I can't read this without tearing up :}

I also love The Land of Counterpane. That's what I had in mind when I wrote about Archie in prison watching armies of ants on the wall in All Our Sons.

[katriona-s.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you very much! This edition with Charles Robinson's illustration is one of my favorite, I like his black & white illustrations very much :)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome indeed! The illustrations are beautiful aren't they? This is one of my most treasured books :)

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

Belated Happy Birthday from here also

I love this poem - and as a song too

its one that I remember from childhood but I don't think I ever learned by heart

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I didn't know this had been set to music. I must see if I can find a recording :)