Grif.Net

03/28/25 Grif.Net – Me and My Shadow

03/28/25 Grif.Net – Me and My Shadow

[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”=

Vi=
rus-free.www.avast.com =