At seven, when I go to bed,
I find such pictures in my head:
Castles with dragons prowling round,
Gardens where magic fruits are found;
Category: Poems
A Fall Song
Golden and red trees
Nod to the soft breeze,
As it whispers, “Winter is near;”
A Ghost Story
On a dreadful stormy night
My dear Tommy had a fight
With great Peter Snookum Snee,
Cat of fighting pedigree.
A Good Play
We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of sofa pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.
A Naughty Pumpkin’s Fate
This little pumpkin had a good life, but was never happy. Then Halloween night came along… not a great night if you’re a pumpkin! Find out his fate!
An Autumn Greeting
‘Come’, said the Wind to the Leaves one day.
‘Come over the meadow and we will play.’
At the Seaside
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup,
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.
Autumn Fires
In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!
Bed in Summer
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
Buttercups and Daisies
Buttercups and daisies-
Oh the pretty flowers,
Coming ere the springtime
To tell of sunny hours.
Down to Sleep
It’s November and the forest settles “down to sleep” for the long, cold winter ahead.
Eldorado
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
Escape at Bedtime
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.
Fall, Leaves, Fall
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away
Lengthen Night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
Foreign Lands
Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.
Fraidie Cat
I shan’t tell you what’s his name:
When we want to play a game,
From a Railway Carriage
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
How doth the Little Crocodile
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How Pleasant to know Mr Lear
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear,
Who has written such volumes of stuff.
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few find him pleasant enough.
How the Leaves Came Down
“I’ll tell you how the leaves came down,”
The great tree to his children said,
“You’re getting sleepy, Yellow and Brown,
Yes, very sleepy, little Red.
It is quite time to go to bed.”
Hush Little Baby
Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,
Papa’ going to buy you a mockingbird.
I remember, I remember
I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
I Saw a Peacock
I Saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail,
I saw a Blazing Comet, drop down hail,
Jabberwocky
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves,
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
Lullaby, oh, Lullaby
Lullaby, oh, lullaby!
Flowers are closed and lambs are sleeping;
Lullaby, oh, lullaby!
Mr & Mrs Spikkey Sparrow
On a little piece of wood,
Mr. Spikky Sparrow stood;
Mrs. Sparrow sate close by,
A-making of an insect pie,
My Shadow
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
Picture-books in Winter
Summer; fading, winter comes-
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.
Pirate Story
Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,
Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea.
Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring,
And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.
Rain in Summer
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!
Robin Redbreast
Goodbye, goodbye to Summer!
For Summer’s nearly done;
The garden smiling faintly,
Cool breezes in the sun;
Spring
Sound the flute!
Now it’s mute!
Bird’s delight,
Day and night…
Summer Sun
Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven without repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Swing, Swing
Swing, swing,
Sing, sing,
Here’s my throne, and I am King!
The Daddy Long-Legs and the Fly
A funny poem by Edward Lear.
Once Mr. Daddy Long-legs, Dressed in brown and gray,
Walked about upon the sands, Upon a sumer’s day;
Read more about The Daddy Long-Legs and the Fly …
The Dog and the Shadow
A hungry dog some meat had seized,
And, with the ample booty pleased,
His neighbour dogs forsook;
In fear for his delightful prize,
He look’d around with eager eyes,
And ran to cross the brook.
The Duck & the Kangaroo
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo,
“Good gracious! how you hop!
Over the fields and the water too,
As if you never would stop!
The Fly-Away Horse
Oh, a wonderful horse is the Fly-Away Horse –
Perhaps you have seen him before;
Perhaps, while you slept, his shadow has swept
Through the moonlight that floats on the floor.
The Jumblies
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter’s morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
The Land of Nod
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.
The Land of Story-Books
A Robert Louis Stevenson Poem.
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At evening when the lamp is lit,
Around the fire my parents sit;
The Lobster-quadrille
“Will you walk a little faster?” said a whiting to a snail,
“There’s a porpoise close behind us, and he’s treading on my tail.
The Mouse, the Cock and the Cat
A Silly young Mouse
Ventur’d out of the house,
In spite of his mother’s advice;
And, deaf to regard,
Ran along the farm-yard,
But return’d to the nest in a trice.
The New Vestments
There lived an old man in the kingdom of Tess,
Who invented a purely original dress;
And when it was perfectly made and complete,
He opened the door, and walked into the street.
The Night Before Christmas
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
The Owl & the Pussycat
The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Into the street the Piper stept, Smiling first a little smile,
As if he knew what magic slept. In his quiet pipe the while;
The Pobble who has no Toes
An charming poem by Edward Lear.
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The Pobble who has no toes, Had once as many as we;
When they said ‘Some day you may lose them all’;
He replied ‘Fish, fiddle-de-dee!’
The Rainbow
Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier than these.
The Spider and the Fly
The cautionary poem by Mary Howitt.
Will you walk into my parlour? said the Spider to the Fly, ‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
Read more about The Spider and the Fly …
The Sun’s Travels
The sun is not a-bed, when I
At night upon my pillow lie;
Still round the earth his way he takes,
And morning after morning makes.
The Swing
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
The Walrus and the Carpenter
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright–
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The Wind
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Topsy Turvey World
If the butterfly courted the bee,
And the owl the porcupine;
If the churches were built in the sea,
And three times one was nine…
Trees
The Oak is called the king of trees,
The Aspen quivers in the breeze…
Whether the weather
Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot…
Windy Nights
Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high…
Winter
When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail…
Winter Time
Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Wynken, Blynken and Nod
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night, sailed off in a wooden shoe…