Lil' Shelf
Cover of Summer Sun

Summer Sun

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

ages 2 to 5poetryread aloudabout 1 minutes aloud

The sun is pictured as "the gardener of the world," slipping through chinks and keyholes to warm every corner of house and garden. A warm, image-rich little nature poem.

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

Great is the sun, and wide he goes
    Through empty heaven without repose;
    And in the blue and glowing days
    More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
    To keep the shady parlour cool,
    Yet he will find a chink or two
    To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
    He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
    And through the broken edge of tiles
    Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
    He bares to all the garden ground,
    And sheds a warm and glittering look
    Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
    Round the bright air with footing true,
    To please the child, to paint the rose,
    The gardener of the World, he goes.

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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