03/28/25 Grif.Net - Me and My Shadow
b...@grif.net
[Continuing our week of English quotations and poetry, this little verse from Robert Louis Stevenson crossed my mind and dribbled out. And drove me to Mirriam’s bosom – as I call my dictionary - to find out that 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 little 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 from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.
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 think 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 my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
~~
Dr. Bob Griffin
b...@grif.net www.grif.net
“1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given”
