Lands of Nod and Counterpane

The Land of Counterpane

by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894)

Read by Shannon Michelle Smith for Reely’s Audio Poems

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.

The Land of Nod

by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894)

Read by Eva Marie Quinones for Librivox

From breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay,
But every night I go abroad
Afar into the land of Nod.

All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do—
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

The strangest things are these for me,
Both things to eat and things to see,
And many frightening sights abroad
Till morning in the land of Nod.

Try as I like to find the way,
I never can get back by day,
Nor can remember plain and clear
The curious music that I hear.

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He lived but 44 years, and was in ill health a considerable amount of time, yet he traveled the world, and wrote timeless classics that are still enjoyed to this day. learn more See Robert Louis Stevenson on Samoan stamps at www.trussel.com

Robert Louis Stevenson Contemporaries:
Sam Walter Foss
Oscar Wilde
John Liddell Kelly
Laura E. Richards