Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume I. Of Home: of Friendship. 1904. | | | | Poems of Home: II. For Children | | The Unseen Playmate | | Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) |
| | | WHEN children are playing alone on the green, | |
| In comes the playmate that never was seen. | |
| When children are happy and lonely and good, | |
| The Friend of the Children comes out of the wood. | |
| |
| Nobody heard him and nobody saw, | 5 |
| His is a picture you never could draw, | |
| But he ’s sure to be present, abroad or at home, | |
| When children are happy and playing alone. | |
| |
| He lies in the laurels, he runs on the grass, | |
| He sings when you tinkle the musical glass; | 10 |
| Whene’er you are happy and cannot tell why, | |
| The Friend of the Children is sure to be by! | |
| |
| He loves to be little, he hates to be big, | |
| ’T is he that inhabits the caves that you dig; | |
| ’T is he when you play with your soldiers of tin | 15 |
| That sides with the Frenchmen and never can win. | |
| |
| ’T is he, when at night you go off to your bed, | |
| Bids you go to your sleep and not trouble your head; | |
| For wherever they ’re lying, in cupboard or shelf, | |
| ’T is he will take care of your playthings himself! | 20 | | | |
|
|
