{
 "id": "robert-louis-stevenson/the-unseen-playmate",
 "title": "The Unseen Playmate",
 "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": 41,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When children are playing alone on the green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In comes the playmate that never was seen.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When children are happy and lonely and good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Friend of the Children comes out of the wood.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nobody heard him and nobody saw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His is a picture you never could draw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But he’s sure to be present, abroad or at home,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When children are happy and playing alone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He lies in the laurels, he runs on the grass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He sings when you tinkle the musical glass;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whene’er you are happy and cannot tell why,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Friend of the Children is sure to be by!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He loves to be little, he hates to be big,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis he that inhabits the caves that you dig;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis he when you play with your soldiers of tin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That sides with the Frenchmen and never can win.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis he, when at night you go off to your bed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bids you go to your sleep and not trouble your head;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For wherever they’re lying, in cupboard or shelf,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis he will take care of your playthings himself!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}