The Hayloft

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

Catalog grade guidance: K–5 — Short children’s lyric; good for early memorization and reading aloud.

18 content lines · 101 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 2 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #136.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

The Hayloft

  Through all the pleasant meadow-side
       The grass grew shoulder-high,
  Till the shining scythes went far and wide
       And cut it down to dry.

  Those green and sweetly smelling crops
       They led in waggons home;
  And they piled them here in mountain tops
       For mountaineers to roam.

  Here is Mount Clear, Mount Rusty-Nail,
       Mount Eagle and Mount High;--
  The mice that in these mountains dwell,
       No happier are than I!

  Oh, what a joy to clamber there,
       Oh, what a place for play,
  With the sweet, the dim, the dusty air,
       The happy hills of hay!


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