Stevenson watches a clear stream and its reflections ripple and blur, comparing the dimming water to a mother blowing out a candle. The imagery is gentle and painterly, better suited to a calm moment than a rowdy read.
From A Child's Garden of Verses. See the whole collection.
Smooth it glides upon its travel,
Here a wimple, there a gleam—
O the clean gravel!
O the smooth stream!
Sailing blossoms, silver fishes,
Paven pools as clear as air—
How a child wishes
To live down there!
We can see our coloured faces
Floating on the shaken pool
Down in cool places,
Dim and very cool;
Till a wind or water wrinkle,
Dipping marten, plumping trout,
Spreads in a twinkle
And blots all out.
See the rings pursue each other;
All below grows black as night,
Just as if mother
Had blown out the light!
Patience, children, just a minute—
See the spreading circles die;
The stream and all in it
Will clear by-and-by.
About this poem
Full text confirmed: 'clean gravel', 'sailing blossoms, silver fishes' both appear; the poem does mention 'a child' and addresses 'children' directly, so it is not childless, only story-free.
A quiet description poem, all reflection and stillness: a river so smooth and clear it works like a looking-glass, showing gravel, blossoms and fish through the water. It's one of the more purely descriptive poems in A Child's Garden of Verses, closer to a painting than a story. Read it slowly, the way the river itself is described moving.
Public domain. Text from A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition