A brief dedication verse addressed to an aunt who clearly meant a great deal to a houseful of children. Stevenson asks what childhood would even have been without her. Short enough to read in a breath, and warm enough to mean it.
From A Child's Garden of Verses. See the whole collection.
_Chief of our aunts_—not only I,
But all your dozen of nurselings cry—
_What did the other children do?_
_And what were childhood, wanting you?_
About this poem
Poem is exactly four lines, addressed to 'Chief of our aunts', speaking for 'all your dozen of nurselings'.
"To Auntie" is one of the short dedication poems Stevenson tucked at the end of A Child's Garden of Verses, addressed to a favourite aunt on behalf of all her nieces and nephews. It's affectionate and slight, four lines asking what childhood would even have been without her.
Best read as what it is, a personal thank-you rather than a rhyme for reciting.
Public domain. Text from A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition