Poetry For Young Children ~ My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson (Free Printable)
One of the subjects I’d like to add to our routine is poetry. I confess that while I appreciate poetry, it has been neglected here! My daughter really enjoys it, and I know it is good for her little brain.
To remedy the situation I’ve set a new goal: read at least two poems per month (a few times each). I plan to share these with my readers as free printables as I find them. The printables will be nothing fancy, but it will be easy for you to print the poems out and pop them in your school “to read” file!
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Following is the first one I found on the Poetry Alive! web site. Poet and novelist Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Scotland, and lived from 1850 – 1894. His works include A Child’s Garden of Verses
You can find out more about Robert Louis Stevenson on Wikipedia. This poem is considered to be in the public domain (no longer copyrighted).
Read the poem below, or click on the image or link to download and print or save. Enjoy!
My Shadow, Robert Louis Stevenson Printable Poem
My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson
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-
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.
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,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Amazon.com
Text (except for poem) Copyright 2014 Kathryn Depew.
Image from flickr.com used under the Creative Commons license. Image by dvs.
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