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In The Garden Of Childhood
By Madonna Dries Christensen
"The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be happy as kings."
~~~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Mention Robert Louis Stevenson and someone will likely be reminded of Treasure Island or Kidnapped, his well-known books.
I've long forgotten the details of those stories, if I ever knew them (they were boys' books). Instead, I recall lines from
Stevenson's poetry in A Child's Garden of Verses.
The Swing: "How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing,
Ever a child can do."
The Wind: "I saw you toss the kites on high, And blow the birds about the sky; And all around I heard you pass, Like
ladies' skirts across the grass."
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."
Although Stevenson was thirty-five when he published his garden of verses, he wrote in a child's voice, from a child's
point of view. Youngsters easily identified with the scenes Stevenson painted with simple words. Adults were immediately transported
back to the sights, sounds, emotions, and mysteries of childhood.
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 13, 1850. For more than a hundred years, the
Stevenson men had been successful and prosperous engineers, building lighthouses along Scotland's coast. As a child, Robert
fell ill with consumption; so much of his schooling took place at home. The slim, brown-eyed boy had a fanciful imagination
and readily understood what he saw and felt. At age eight, while confined to bed, he wrote and illustrated a book he titled
A History of Moses.
Attempting to follow in his father's footsteps, Stevenson studied engineering at Edinburgh University, but poor health
and lack of interest caused him to abandon that course of study. He then studied law and was admitted to Scotland's bar, but
rather than practice law he engaged in the literary life, writing essays, travel sketches and short stories. His first two
books dealt with travel. An Inland Voyage, an account of his canoe trip up the rivers of Holland, and Travels With A Donkey
In Cevennes.
At twenty-three, after being advised by his doctor to move to a warm, dry climate, Stevenson searched for a suitable place
to live. In France, he met and fell in love with Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne, ten years his senior and married with two children.
She returned to California to obtain a divorce, with Stevenson following soon after. Married in 1880, they set out to find
a healthful climate. On a voyage through the Seven Seas, Stevenson discovered that Samoa's weather suited him. There he wrote
Treasure Island, A Child's Garden of Verses, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (based on a dream,
and written and published in ten weeks). He also wrote many lesser-known books, essays and poetry.
In dedicating A Child's Garden of Verses to his childhood nanny, Stevenson wrote: "To Alison Cunningham from Her
Boy. My second mother, my first wife, the angel of my infant life." Although the collection was considered a classic
almost from the beginning, some of the poems were not included in later publications. They were thought to be too philosophical
to be understood by primary age children, more for adults than for children. But the majority of Stevenson's verses touch
on the pleasures of childhood: the changing seasons, playing in the hayloft, the red cow in the meadow, digging in the sand
at seaside, sailing toy boats, climbing trees, marching in a parade with pretend musical instruments. Given Stevenson's lifelong
illness, it's not surprising that a dozen or so of his children's verses have a bedtime theme, in whole or part.
The Land of Counterpane--"When I was sick and lay a-bed, I had two pillows at my head, And all the toys beside me
lay, To keep me happy all the day." He goes on to explain about playing with lead soldiers and toy ships, moving them
into battle among the hills and valleys created in the sheets and blankets.
Bed in Summer--"In winter I get up at night and dress by yellow candlelight. In summer, quite the other way, I have
to go to bed by day. I have to go to bed and see, The birds still hopping on the tree, or hear the grown-up people's feet,
Still going past me in the street."
Young Night Thought--This verse shows a little boy's imagination after Mama puts out the light. He sees "people marching
by ... armies and emperors and kings ... a circus on the green ... every kind of beast and man ... until we reach the Town
of Sleep."
A Good Boy--My bed is waiting cool and fresh, with linen smooth and fair, And I must off to sleepsin-by, and not forget
my prayer.
Escape At Bedtime--This verse tells of a boy's flight into the garden, where he studied the stars until ... "they
saw me at last, and they chased me with cries, and they soon had me packed into bed."
My Bed Is A Boat, The Land of Nod, The Sun's Travels, The Lamplighter, The Moon, Good Night, Shadow March, In Port, all
speak of bedtime in some manner, of being tucked in, of cuddling, of shadows and mysteries of the night.
Good health eluded Stevenson. Death came at the age of forty-four from a brain hemorrhage. His unfinished novel, Weir
of Hermiston, is considered by many to be his finest work. The last line he wrote might well have pertained to his sudden
death. "It had seemed unprovoked, a willful convulsion of brute nature."
Upon his death, native Samoans hacked a path up a mountainside and carried their friend to the top, the site he had chosen
for his eternal bed. Fourteen years earlier, when he was gravely ill in California, he had written his epitaph: Requiem, the
last three lines of which are engraved on his tombstone.
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you 'grave for me;
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea
And the hunter home from the hill.
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