Windy Nights

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

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

14 content lines · 85 words · Est. recitation about 50 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.

Windy Nights

  Whenever the moon and stars are set,
       Whenever the wind is high,
  All night long in the dark and wet,
       A man goes riding by.
  Late in the night when the fires are out,
  Why does he gallop and gallop about?

  Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
       And ships are tossed at sea,
  By, on the highway, low and loud,
       By at the gallop goes he.
  By at the gallop he goes, and then
  By he comes back at the gallop again.


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