Lil' Shelf
Cover of Foreign Children

Foreign Children

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

ages 5 to 8poetryread aloudabout 57 seconds aloud

Stevenson lists children from other countries and cultures, then declares his own life the better one. Written in 1885, it carries the casual condescension typical of its era, and it is kept here for completeness rather than as a recommended read.

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

Little Indian, Sioux or Crow,
    Little frosty Eskimo,
    Little Turk or Japanee,
    Oh! don't you wish that you were me?

You have seen the scarlet trees
    And the lions over seas;
    You have eaten ostrich eggs,
    And turned the turtles off their legs.

Such a life is very fine,
    But it's not so nice as mine:
    You must often, as you trod,
    Have wearied _not_ to be abroad.

You have curious things to eat,
    I am fed on proper meat;
    You must dwell beyond the foam,
    But I am safe and live at home.
      Little Indian, Sioux or Crow,
      Little frosty Eskimo,
      Little Turk or Japanee,
    Oh! don't you wish that you were me?

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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