101 Poems, Number 67

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

67: “The Moon,” 1885 (from A Child’s Garden of Verses), by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94)

“The moon has a face like the clock in the hall”—

I heard these lines come from a stage*

In Stratford, and I heard the call:
“Now learn it!” So I made a page

That held the words and carried it

Around with me for several days

Rehearsing. (So I act when bit

By words I want to learn—a haze

Descends on me, and I rehearse

Until I know the poem well—

Yes, every word and line and verse—

And only then will fade the spell.)

This poem is about the day,

The night—the creatures who prefer

One or the other. I now say

These lines each week—a whisperer

Whose moving lips must puzzle some

As I walk slowly down the walk.

“Is this guy mad? Or merely dumb?

He's old—but he can walk and talk!”

*It was included in a performance of Treasure Island at the Avon Theatre; Stratford, Ontario; we saw it on Thursday night, August 3, 2017.

Link to poem.