[Cont=
inuing our week of English quotations and poetry, this little verse from Ro=
bert Louis Stevenson crossed my mind and dribbled out. And drove me to Mirr=
iam’s bosom – as I call my dictionary – to find out that&=
nbsp; his use of “arrant” was not “errant” (the way=
I had memorized the last stanza decades ago). This poem and many from his =
garden of verse made me smile; trust it will you, too.]
I have a lit=
tle shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the =
use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me f=
rom the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, w=
hen I jump into my bed.
The funniest th=
ing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all l=
ike proper children, which is always very slow;
For he someti=
mes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he someti=
mes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.
&nbs=
p;
He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.=
He =
stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d thin=
k shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
=
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But m=
y lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed =
at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
~~
Dr. Bob Griffin
bob@gr=
if.net www.grif.net
“1 cross + 3 nails =3D 4 given”=
rus-free.www.avast.com =