this is the one book that i have from my very early childhood
i loved reading these poems
and i remember memorizing many of them on my own.
(my shadow, was one)
but i also remember having to recite one in front of the class in 3rd or 4th grade......
and this was the one i chose
i really enjoy the memories saved from time spent with this book
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6 comments:
What a special treasure you were able to keep. I bet your children and grandchildren have heard poems from the same book. I just love hearing about all these treasures. Thanks for getting me hooked on this! :)
What fond memories your posting brings back to me, Kim. I remember that very book that you have. But I did not remember that you recited before your class the very poem I recited before my first grade class in 1934 in Young, Arizona.
Our teacher Mrs. Mabel Foree, gave to each one of the students in her class (which was first and second grades in one room) a copy of A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. Mrs. Foree was planning a Valentine's program for the parents and she assigned a poem to each student to memorize and recite at the program. The very poem she assigned to me was BED IN SUMMER. She had a very large piece of cardboad in which she cut an opening the shape of a heart and then she decorated the cardboard with valentines. Each child had to stand with their head showing through the heart opening and recited their poem to the parents.
At first I had a hard time understanding Bed In Summer because I was not familiar with time changes and summer causing us to have to go to bed when it was still daylight so I was not too pleased with the poem she assigned me. I would much rather have recited my favorite one in the book THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE. In the old days a counterpane was a bed sheet. This poem told of a little boy who was sick in bed and to distract him from boredom he bunched the sheet up in hills and valleys and then placed his toy soldiers on the hills and in the valleys and enjoyed staging skirmishes with them all over the bedsheet (counterpane)
I still have a copy of A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES in my library but not a beautiful copy like yours. Mine is more of a stodgy brown bound copy. Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote all of the poems in the book is also the same man who wrote the famous book TREASURE ISLAND.
Thanks for the memory, Kim. Love, Dad
After reading your post I think I should try to find this book for my library. It sounds like a classic and I love your dad's story as well. Isn't it a lovely coincidence that father and daughter should have to recite the same poem. Like you, I have many wonderful childhood memories that are connected to books. Thanks for sharing yours - puts a smile on my face.
Joni
i have this same book and my shadow was my favorite poem in this book too. in my blog at the month of july or august i have pictures from this book on it. thank you for your kind words of comfort to me. love nita
Wow... our memories seem to be so tangled up with each other and we have never met. :) Small world huh.
This book sounds oh so very familiar but I can't find it among my mother's books that I still have. I've looked in her old secretary and in the two end tables that have bookcase fronts and it's not there. I'm sure she read to me from it. I also remember the Land of Counterpane mentioned in one of the other comments. Now I'm going to be wondering where my copy of the book is. So many memories ....
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