✦ A Classic Poem ✦

The Moon

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

The moon has a face like the clock in the hall, and she shines on cats, mice, bats, and sleeping birds, while flowers and children close their eyes.

Watch the Read-Aloud Read the Poem

Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 1 min 36 sec ✦ Watch on YouTube

✦ The Poem ✦

The Moon

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

The moon has a face like the clock in the hall; She shines on thieves on the garden wall, On streets and fields and harbour quays, And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse, The howling dog by the door of the house, The bat that lies in bed at noon, All love to be out by the light of the moon.

But all of the things that belong to the day Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way; And flowers and children close their eyes Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.

✦ About the Poem ✦

Creatures of the Night

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) is best known for Treasure Island and Kidnapped, but A Child’s Garden of Verses, published in 1885, may be his most loved book. He was often ill as a boy in Edinburgh and spent long days in bed, and these poems remember childhood from the inside, in a child’s own voice.

The poem sorts the world into two groups: the night creatures who love the moonlight, like cats, owls, and bats, and the day things, like flowers and children, who close their eyes until morning. It makes a gentle bedtime reminder of which group a listener belongs to.

✦ Talk About It ✦

Questions to Share

What does the moon’s face look like to the child?
Which animals love to be out by moonlight?
Which things “belong to the day”? Do you?

✦ Keep Reading ✦

More Poems to Enjoy

My Shadow

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

Bed in Summer

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

All Poems

Browse every poem in the Storyland Classics library.