On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 9:02 PM, Wesley McGee <[email protected]> wrote: > I've either lived a very sheltered or a very sad and lacking childhood. > > I've lost count of how many times I've seen a web post that started with the > title of "A Children's Treasury of..." Where did this reference come from, > and why is it so popular. It seems like it an almost random choice for a > reference...
On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 7:04 PM, Jon Delfin <[email protected]> wrote: > Without benefit of research, I'd venture it's a generic form taken > from Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses." > It almost certainly is a reference to Stevenson. Wes has not been sheltered, just, I guess, to young to have been raised with this book. I am not, and remember it fondly. I got it for my kids, but I don't think it was nearly as formative for them as it was for me and my sister, who did not have video games, or DVDs, or more than 5 channels to compete with it. One of the poems from that collection that for a long time I could recite from memory: "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 errant sleepy-head, Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed." -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
