Children's Poetry
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Poetry Break # 1

Poetry Break # 1

Classic Poem

(By poet who is no longer living)

 

 

I enjoy dreaming at night and try to remember my dreams during the day. Sometimes I can remember pieces, but usually I can not. In 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, author of TREASURE ISLAND, wrote this poem about children's dreams.

 

The Land of Nod

 

From breakfast on through all the day

At home among my friend 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 mountainside of dreams.

 

The strangest things are there 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.

 

Written by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885. Taken

from A CHILDS TREASURY OF POEMS edited by

Mark Daniel, Penguin Books, 1986, p. 144.

 

Extension: a) Invite children to discuss their dreams. What are some unusual ones they remember? Do they dream in color? Is it difficult to remember dreams the next day? Do they recall any scary dreams? b) Read this poem several times and ask students to share their feelings and thoughts. Could this poem have been written today? Share a more contemporary poem about dreams and ask students which one they prefer.

 

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