LINGER in the GARDEN there....

TO ANY READER by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) 

From "A Child's Garden of  Verses 1885"

(Dedicated to his nurse Alison Cuningham, who cared for him in his childhood)

As from the house your mother sees you playing around the garden trees

So you may see, if you will look

                           Through the windows of this book,

                                                                                         Another child, far, far away,

                                                           And in another garden, play.

But do not think you can at all,

                  By knocking on the window, all that child to hear you.

He intent is all on his pay-business bent.

                                                                     He does not hear; he will not look,

Nor yet be lured out of this book.

                                          For, long ago, the truth to say,

He has grown up and gone away,

                                           And it is but a child of air

That lingers in the garden there..................

Photography 2025

"A Child's Garden of Verses 1885" is in the Public domain....