A Child’s Garden of Verses, Singable Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Posted on: March 28, 2010
- In: Case for Singable Books | Heartfelt Musings | Poetry | Sing Along Tracks | Singable Book Title | Singable Poem | Singable Poetry | Song History | Vocal Tracks
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“A Child’s Garden of Verses” offers a treasure trove (or, should I say a “Treasure Island”) of singable poems.
I have a copy of “A Child’s Garden of Verses” inscribed to me from my grandmother (Ethel, aka “Gram”), a Valentine’s Day gift in 1974. It is one of my most valued possessions, a Golden Book, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen.
A Child’s Garden of Verses
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Musical Settings by Various Artists
Illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen
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Many artists have illustrated this lovely collection of poetry, which was first published in 1885 under the title “Penny Whistles.”
Note that the poems in each illustrated version vary slightly and the poems appear in a different order.
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A Child’s Garden of Verses
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Musical Settings by Various Artists
Illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa
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A Child’s Garden of Verses
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Musical Settings by Various Artists
Illustrated by The Jolly Jump-Ups
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A Child’s Garden of Verses
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Musical Settings by Various Artists
Illustrated by Brian Wildsmith
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A Child’s Garden of Verses
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Musical Settings by Various Artists
Illustrated by Susan Bonners
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A Child’s Garden of Verses
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Musical Settings by Various Artists
Illustrated by E. Mars and M.H. Squire
This edition, published in 1902 by Rand McNally, is online at: http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/child_garden_verses/index.htm
This edition, published in 1902 by Rand McNally, is also online at: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25617/25617-h/25617-h.htm
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A Child’s Garden of Verses (a Pop-Up)
Poems by Robert Lewis Stevenson
Music by Various Artists
Illustrated by Jannat Messenger
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OTHER COMPILATIONS OF CHILDREN’S POETRY THAT FEATURE WORKS BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
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Land of Nod (and Other Poems for Children by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Selected by Michael Hague
Illustrated by Michael Hague
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The Lobster Quadrille (and Other Poems for Children)
Edited by Lucy Simon
Illustrated by Susan Bennett
CD: Carly & Lucy Simon Sing Songs for Children
The poems by RLS illustrated and set to music in the book, and on the CD:
- The Lamplighter (Robert Louis Stevenson)
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Poetry for Young People: Robert Louis Stevenson
Edited by Frances Schoonmaker
Illustrated by Lucy Corvino
(Singable Poems include: Bed in Summer, The Swing, The Land of Counterpane)
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The Tall Book of Make Believe
Illustrated by Garth Williams
Includes “The Land of Counterpane” by Robert Louis Stevenson
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Tomie’s Little Book of Poems
Words and Music by Various Artists
Illustrated by Tomie DePaola
(Singable Poems include, “Time to Rise,” by Robert Louis Stevenson and “God Bless the Moon,” a traditional rhyme)
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Tomie dePaola’s Rhyme Time
Illustrated by Tomie dePaola
(“The Land of Counterpane” is illustrated on p. 26)
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A handy timeline of Robert Louis Stevenson’s life, here:
http://stevenson.classicauthors.net/
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The website ChildrensBooksOnline.org has a complete copy of the book online, published by Rand McNally in 1902, Illustrated by E. Mars and M.H. Squire: http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/child_garden_verses/index.htm
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Joanie Bartles, on her album “Morning Magic”
(http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/morning-magic/id299023471)
has two tracks for “Time to Rise”, a 19 second song. Track 3 features the instrumentals and Joanie’s vocals, Track 13 has just the instrumental so you can sing the song, solo.
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Over time, I will write posts on each of the Singable Poems in “A Child’s Garden of Verses,” listed in alphabetical order below. If the title is in blue, clicking on it will link you to a post I’ve written about that poem:
- At the Seaside
- Auntie’s Skirts
- Autumn Fires
- Bed in Summer
- Block City
- Christmas At Sea
- Cow, The
- Dumb Soldier, The
- Escape At Bedtime
- Fairy Bread
- Farewell to the Farm, A
- Foreign Children
- Foreign Lands
- From a Railway Carriage
- Good Boy, A
- Happy Thought
- Lamplighter, The
- Land Of Counterpane, The
- Land of Nod, The
- Looking Glass River
- Marching Song
- Moon, The
- My Bed Is a Boat
- My Shadow
- Nest Eggs
- Picture Books in Winter
- Pirate Story
- Rain
- Singing
- Sun’s Travels, The
- Swing, The
- Time to Rise
- To Any Reader
- To My Mother
- Where Go the Boats
- Wind, The
- Windy Nights
- Young Night Thought
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Many recordings have been dedicated to “A Child’s Garden of Verses,” including:
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A Child’s Garden of Verses
(LP Recording)
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Music by Gwyn Conger
Sung by Frances Archer and Beverly Gile
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A Child’s Garden of Verses (Selections from)
(CD Recording)
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Music by Rita Leonard
Sung by Rita Leonard
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A Child’s Garden of Verses
(CD Recording)
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Music by Seymour Barab
Sung by Russell Oberlin
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The Gift of Make-Believe (Read and Sing Along Lyric Book)
Words by Various Artists
Tunes by Ginger Sands and Various Artists
Illustrations derived from published works of Various Artists
RLS Poems set to music on this CD:
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I Have a Little Shadow (A child’s garden of songs, inspired by the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson)
Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
Music by Steve Klaper and Caitlin M.G. Klaper
Illustrated by Anne Costello
This CD is a collection of songs setting RLS poems from “A Child’s Garden of Verses” to music and includes a booklet with illustrations and a separate CD with PDFs of Sheet Music and MP3 versions of the songs.
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Classic Children’s Songs
Produced by Just Accord Music, 2006
Musical settings of RLS poems on this CD:
- The Lamplighter
- My Bed is a Boat
- Singing
- The Swing
- When the Golden Day is Done
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Click here for an archival summary of musical settings of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry:
http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/richard-dury-archive/music.htm
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An informative wiki article about RLS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson
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Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife (1885)
Oil on canvas by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Read an excellent essay on this painting of Robert Louis Stevenson by the artist John Singer Sargent, which includes fascinating biographical information about and excerpts from the personal letters of RLS: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Sargent_-_Robert_Louis_Stevenson_and_His_Wife.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sargent_-_Robert_Louis_Stevenson_and_His_Wife.jpg&usg=__I3l8mruSFwUfQ6Ukpohnz8ood6s=&h=661&w=800&sz=255&hl=en&start=13&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=9ILHb6_EONul8M:&tbnh=118&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drobert%2Blouis%2Bstevenson%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4GWYE_enUS312US312%26tbs%3Disch:1
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Robert Louis Stevenson’s odd looks, talent, and personality clearly made him an interesting subject for artist’s portraits, here’s another by Girolamo Nerli:
Robert Louis Stevenson portrait by Girolamo Nerli
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A groovy YouTube.com photo mongage of Robert Lewis Stevenson,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DduA5SIkb_U
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More YouTubes of RLS poems (mostly spoken word):
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Windy Nights
(sung by a choir)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iGXLddN0UM
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From “Songs of Travel”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hueTjgol1M
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Whole Duty of Children
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ_Vx60LeIA
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The Cow
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAQSaGmCF_o
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Where Go the Boats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM8CqAd9oI0
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Addendum, December 30, 2010
Mark Twain on Robert Louis Stevenson
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This past Sunday, the cover story went to an article (written by one of my heroes, Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor) about the publication of Mark Twain’s Autobiography. Mr. Keillor points out that Mr. Twain has a comment or two about people he meets, including Robert Louis Stevenson.
Because so many of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poems from “A Child’s Garden of Verses” have been set to music, I have come to learn a few things about him, have seen many portraits and photographs made of his likeness, and have become quite smitten with him.
It would seem that Mark Twain, very luck to have met Mr. Stevenson (and visa-versa), was taken with the author-poet as well, saying, “His splendid eyes…burned with a smoldering rich fire under the penthouse of his brows, and they made him beautiful.”
Oh, it makes me just melt.
Link to Garrison Keillor’s article about Mark Twain’s Autobiography:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/books/review/Keillor-t.html
Link to the post “Mark Twain on Robert Louis Stevenson“
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/mark-twain-on-robert-louis-stevenson/
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INDIVIDUALLY ILLUSTRATED POEMS BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
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The Moon
Poem by Robert Louis Stevenson
Illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson
(This poem by RLS is from “A Child’s Garden of Verses.” Robert Louis Stevenson’s poems are wonderfully musical and singable which is why so many have been set to music. My favorite version of “The Moon” is by Ted Jacobs, on his album “A Child’s Garden of Songs,” Track 14, you can preview the song by clicking here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002EIS9HW/ref=dm_dp_trk14?ie=UTF8&qid=1266672852&sr=8-1)
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The Moon
Poem by Robert Louis Stevenson
Musical Settings by Various Artists
Illustrated by Denise Saldutti
ISBN 0-06-443098-7
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My Shadow
Words by Robert Louis Stevenson
Illustrated by Ted Rand
(You can sing this song to the tune of “Little Turtle” which you can hear on the “Sing Books with Emily” page on MySpace:http://www.myspace.com/singbookswithemily)
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The Swing
Poem by Robert Lewis Stevenson
Traditional Tune
Illustrated by Julie Morstad
Originally Published in A Child’s Garden of Verses
ISBN 978-1897476482
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Related Posts:
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CHILD’S GARDEN OF VERSES, SINGABLE POEMS BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/a-childs-garden-of-verses-singable-poems-by-robert-louis-stevenson/
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MARK TWAIN ON ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/mark-twain-on-robert-louis-stevenson/
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EDUCATIONAL CONTENT
A list of SPBs with fun and sneakily educational content. The kids won’t even know they’re learning!
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/singable-picture-books-with-sneaky-educational-content/
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POETRY SINGABLE POETRY IN COMPILATIONS
An list of singable poems from compilations of poetry for children
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/singable-poetry-a-list-of-poems-that-can-be-sung-from-illustrated-compilations-of-poetry-and-singable-picture-books/
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POETRY, SINGABLE POETRY IN INDIVIDUALLY ILLUSTRATED SINGABLE PICTURE BOOKS
A list of individually illustrated poems that have been set to music and can be sung
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/poems-individually-illustrated-spb/
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The Swing (Singable Poem by RLS) a New Illustration by Julie Morstad
http://singbookswithemily.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/the-swing-singable-poem-by-rls-a-new-illustration-by-julie-morstad/
