Poetry

Robert Louis Stevenson
Foreign Lands

Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.

I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.

If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships.

To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.
http://www.poetry.com/PoetryForChildren/childrenspoem.asp?id=322

I like this poem because I think that it captured the idea of childhood. Children are supposed to climb trees and be imaginative and have fun and believe in magical things. The title of this poems is great because it is pretty accurate in that when you use your imagination you can travel to foreign lands. This is a childrens poem so the language is fairly simple, but one poetic device the author does use is imagery. The tone is cheerful and fun, it is from the perspective of a child outside playing.