My Shadow (Robert Louis Stevenson)

This  poem was a favourite with our older children and, now, we are enjoying it with the younger ones.

Megan memorised it, when she was about 8, so I tried to see how much she could still remember, prompting her at every line.

"Mum," she said, "I'm not a student, anymore. I'm the teacher, now."

"But, you need to teach it to your students," I reply. "Every child wants to know Robert Louis Stevenson!"

"No," she says, "every child wants to know when the tuckshop is open."

"Or, who's got a new Wii," I muse, sadly.

"No, Mum. Everyone's got a Wii, already."

Even sadder...

Well, our children will get to know Robert Louis Stevenson because I'm a bit old-fashioned and I still love his stories and poems. And, if they don't take to him as well as I'd like, I expect they'll still have fond memories of our read alouds with Robert when they're older.

This one's a favourite.

My 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—	5
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.	10
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 arrant sleepy-head,	15
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.