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Cover of Farewell to the Farm

Farewell to the Farm

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

ages 2 to 5poetryread aloudabout 47 seconds aloud

A goodbye poem built around one repeated line, 'Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!', as a coach pulls away from a beloved farm. The refrain means a child can join in after just one hearing.

From A Child's Garden of Verses. See the whole collection.

The coach is at the door at last;
    The eager children, mounting fast
    And kissing hands, in chorus sing:
    Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

To house and garden, field and lawn,
    The meadow-gates we swang upon,
    To pump and stable, tree and swing,
    Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

And fare you well for evermore,
    O ladder at the hayloft door,
    O hayloft where the cobwebs cling,
    Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

Crack goes the whip, and off we go;
    The trees and houses smaller grow;
    Last, round the woody turn we swing:
    Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

Public domain. Text from A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition

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