A short round-the-world poem about who sings and where, from birds to sailors to children in Japan and Spain. Its list-like structure makes it easy to read with a bit of a tune.
From A Child's Garden of Verses. See the whole collection.
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.
About this poem
Full text confirmed: birds sing of eggs and nests, a sailor of ropes and ships, children in Japan and Spain, and an organ-grinder's organ 'singing in the rain'.
A poem about how everyone sings about their own life: birds about nests, sailors about ropes and ships, children in Japan and Spain about whatever's in front of them. Stevenson's case is a simple one: singing is universal, and everyone's got their own song in them. Good for asking a child afterwards what they'd sing about.
Public domain. Text from A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition