(Poem #828) Where Go the Boats?
Dark brown is the river, Golden is the sand. It flows along for ever, With trees on either hand. Green leaves a-floating, Castles of the foam, Boats of mine a-boating-- Where will all come home? On goes the river And out past the mill, Away down the valley, Away down the hill. Away down the river, A hundred miles or more, Other little children Shall bring my boats ashore.
(A Child's Garden of Verses, XIV) Few poets can capture the spirit of childhood in quite the way Stevenson can. The world a child inhabits is in several dimensions bigger, richer and altogether more magical than the 'real' one, and Stevenson's poems bring out that difference admirably, blending the real world seamlessly with that of the imagination, and tossing in details like 'it flows along forever' and 'castles of the foam' for the child's eye view. As always, note the wonderful imagery, the *feel* of vast distances and enchanted journeys, the gently rippling rhythm, and the typically Stevensonian ending (the 'other little children' in far away places is a recurrent theme in 'A Child's Garden of Verses'). Links: Biography: poem #20 Other Stevenson poems on Minstrels: Poem #20, 'Requiem' Poem #84, 'From a Railway Carriage' Poem #290, 'Bed in Summer' Poem #450, 'Auntie's Skirts' Poem #780, 'The Vagabond' -martin