✦ A Classic Poem ✦

My Shadow

A poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, from A Child’s Garden of Verses, 1885

A child’s shadow jumps into bed, shoots up tall, shrinks to nothing, and one morning stays home asleep. Watch the read-aloud and read along below.

Watch the Read-Aloud Read the Poem

Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 1 min 52 sec ✦ Watch on YouTube

✦ The Poem ✦

My Shadow

by Robert Louis Stevenson, from A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885). Public domain.

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.

✦ About the Poem ✦

A Puzzle in Every Verse

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) wrote Treasure Island and Kidnapped, but he also remembered exactly what it felt like to be small. A Child’s Garden of Verses, published in 1885, is full of poems told in a child’s own voice, and “My Shadow” is one of the most famous.

The child in the poem doesn’t yet know how shadows work, so every verse is a little mystery. The shadow grows and shrinks because the sun moves across the sky, and it “stays in bed” in the last verse because there is no sunlight before dawn to make it. Grown-ups know the science, but the poem lets listeners enjoy the puzzle first.

✦ Talk About It ✦

Questions to Share

Why does the shadow sometimes grow tall and sometimes disappear?
Why was the shadow “asleep in bed” early in the morning?
Go outside on a sunny day. Can you make your shadow jump, grow, or hide?

✦ Keep Reading ✦

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