My Shadow - A Poetry Break

INTRODUCTION

Groundhog Day is tomorrow and it's time to share another poem! Though poems about groundhogs would be great, but sharing poems about shadows also very appropriate this time of year. Perhaps the most famous or well-known poem about shadows is Robert Louis Stevenson's "My Shadow." When sharing this poem with the kids, have fun and be animated in the reciting.



POEM

My Shadowby Robert Louis Stevenson

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 heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bead.

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 non 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 schadow 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.

EXTENSIONStevenson's wrote all the poems in his A Child's Garden of Verses with an innocent, child-like perspective and this poem is no exception. Have the kids create their own poem or narrative to describe their shadow and what it does.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stevenson, Robert Louis. 1994. (orig. 1885). A Child's Garden of Verses. Illus. by Joanna Isles. ISBN: 9780877016083.