✦ A Classic Poem ✦

The Wind

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

The wind tosses kites, blows the birds about, and rustles the grass, but no one can ever see it. A child asks the wind who it really is.

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

✦ The Poem ✦

The Wind

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

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— O wind, a-blowing all day long, O wind, that sings so loud a song!

I saw the different things you did, But always you yourself you hid. I felt you push, I heard you call, I could not see yourself at all— O wind, a-blowing all day long, O wind, that sings so loud a song!

O you that are so strong and cold, O blower, are you young or old? Are you a beast of field and tree, Or just a stronger child than me? O wind, a-blowing all day long, O wind, that sings so loud a song!

✦ About the Poem ✦

Talking to the Wind

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 whole poem is spoken to the wind, as if it were a person. The child can see what the wind does, hear it, and feel it push, but never see the wind itself. By the last verse the child is asking it questions, and wondering if it might just be another child, only stronger.

✦ Talk About It ✦

Questions to Share

What things does the wind do in the poem?
Why can’t the child see the wind?
If you could ask the wind one question, what would it be?

✦ Keep Reading ✦

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

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

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