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  • Robert Louis Stevenson
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  • Escape at Bedtime
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Escape at Bedtime

Robert Louis Stevenson

The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out
Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
And high overhead and all moving about,
There were thousands of millions of stars.
There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,
Nor of people in church or the Park,
As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,
And that glittered and winked in the dark.

The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,
And the star of the sailor, and Mars,
These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall
Would be half full of water and stars.
They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,
And they soon had me packed into bed;
But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,
And the stars going round in my head.


Robert Louis Stevenson

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bedtime childhood National Poetry Day 2012 poems on postcards stars

About this poem

This poem was reproduced on a postcard for National Poetry Day 2012. Eight poetry postcards are published each year by the Scottish Poetry Library to celebrate National Poetry Day and are distributed throughout Scotland to schools, libraries and other venues. The theme for 2012 was stars. You can find out more about National Poetry Day in our National Poetry Day pages, where you'll also find resources to go with the poems.

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Robert Louis Stevenson1850 - 1894

It is sadly ironic that RLS, under whose pen Scotland and the Scottish character burst into life, was exiled to a life and death so far from his native land.
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