StoryTitle("caps", "My Shadow") ?>
Shadow," by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94), is one of the most
popular short poems extant. I have taught it to a great many very young
boys, and not one has ever tried to evade learning it. Older pupils like
it equally well.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.", "") ?>
PagePoem(10, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "One morning, very early, before the sun was up,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Robert Louis Stevenson.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>