10 of the best book quotes from A Child's Garden of Verses
01
At the Seaside
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore,
My holes were empty like a cup,
In every hole the sea came up
Till it could come no more
Foreign Lands
Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.
I saw the next-door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
The Whole Duty of Children
A child should always say what’s true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table;
At least as far as he is able.
Singing
Of speckled eggs the birdie sings
And nests among the trees;
The sailor sings of ropes and things
In ships upon the seas.
The children sing in far Japan,
The children sing in Spain;
The organ with the organ man
Is singing in the rain.
“Fairy Bread
Come up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread to eat,
Here in my retiring room,
Children, you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of the pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell.”
“Windy Nights
Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by,
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he,
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again.”
“Autumn Fires
In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The gay smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!”