{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/the-little-land",
 "title": "The Little Land",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert Louis Stevenson",
 "poet_slug": "robert-louis-stevenson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "A Child's Garden of Verses",
 "book_slug": "childs-garden-of-verses",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 48,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1885,
  "venue": "A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/achildsgardenve04stevgoog"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-louis-stevenson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlvol28stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksofrobertlou14stev",
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoemsandvaria00stevuoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemshithertounp00stevrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31291",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30659",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/441",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems,_by_Robert_Louis_Stevenson,_hitherto_unpublished"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 64,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When at home alone I sit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And am very tired of it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have just to shut my eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To go sailing through the skies⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To go sailing far away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the pleasant Land of Play;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the fairy land afar",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the Little People are;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the clover-tops are trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the rain-pools are the seas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the leaves like little ships",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sail about on tiny trips;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And above the daisy tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the grasses,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "High o’erhead the Bumble Bee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hums and passes.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In that forest to and fro",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I can wander, I can go;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See the spider and the fly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the ants go marching by",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carrying parcels with their feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down the green and grassy street.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I can in the sorrel sit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the ladybird alit.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I can climb the jointed grass;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on high",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "See the greater swallows pass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the sky,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And the round sun rolling by",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heeding no such things as I.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Through that forest I can pass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till, as in a looking-glass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Humming fly and daisy tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And my tiny self I see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Painted very clear and neat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the rain-pool at my feet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should a leaflet come to land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drifting near to where I stand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straight I’ll board that tiny boat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round the rain-pool sea to float.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Little thoughtful creatures sit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the grassy coasts of it;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Little things with lovely eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See me sailing with surprise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some are clad in armour green⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(These have sure to battle been!)⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some are pied with ev’ry hue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Black and crimson, gold and blue;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some have wings and swift are gone;⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But they all look kindly on.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When my eyes I once again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Open and see all things plain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High bare walls, great bare floor;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Great big knobs on drawer and door;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Great big people perched on chairs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stitching tucks and mending tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each a hill that I could climb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And talking nonsense all the time⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O dear me,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "That I could be",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "A sailor on the rain-pool sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A climber in the clover-tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And just come back, a sleepy-head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Late at night to go to bed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}