North-West Passage

Source

Source: Project Gutenberg #136 Source URL: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/136 Public domain basis: Public-domain English poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885). Coverage: Complete individual poem extracted from parent edition a-childs-garden-of-verses at bytes 28274-30184; checksum 032957152b1bf8b0cac4eeaa896d0ae59aa55bcb4e4426ee028cff6c5bf92ad2.

# North-West Passage

North-West Passage

1. Good-Night

When the bright lamp is carried in, The sunless hours again begin; O'er all without, in field and lane, The haunted night returns again.

Now we behold the embers flee About the firelit hearth; and see Our faces painted as we pass, Like pictures, on the window glass.

Must we to bed indeed? Well then, Let us arise and go like men, And face with an undaunted tread The long black passage up to bed.

Farewell, O brother, sister, sire! O pleasant party round the fire! The songs you sing, the tales you tell, Till far to-morrow, fare you well!

2. Shadow March

All around the house is the jet-black night; It stares through the window-pane; It crawls in the corners, hiding from the light, And it moves with the moving flame.

Now my little heart goes a beating like a drum, With the breath of the Bogies in my hair; And all around the candle the crooked shadows come, And go marching along up the stair.

The shadow of the balusters, the shadow of the lamp, The shadow of the child that goes to bed-- All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp, With the black night overhead.

3. In Port

Last, to the chamber where I lie My fearful footsteps patter nigh, And come out from the cold and gloom Into my warm and cheerful room.

There, safe arrived, we turn about To keep the coming shadows out, And close the happy door at last On all the perils that we past.

Then, when mamma goes by to bed, She shall come in with tip-toe tread, And see me lying warm and fast And in the land of Nod at last.

THE CHILD ALONE

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