Foreign Lands

1885

UP into the cherry treeWho should climb but little me?I held the trunk with both my handsAnd looked abroad on foreign lands.

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

I saw the dimpling river passAnd be the sky's blue looking-glass;The dusty roads go up and downWith people tramping in to town.

If I could find a higher treeFarther and farther I should see,To where the grown-up river slipsInto the sea among the ships,

To where the roads on either handLead onward into fairy land,Where all the children dine at five,And all the playthings come alive.

From A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), via the English Wikisource transcription.

Public domainThis poem is in the public domain. You may read it, copy it, recite it and publish it without asking anyone.