At the Sea-Side

"My Shadow" by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)

Stevenson published “My Shadow” along with “At the Sea-Side” and other poems in 1885 in his collection A Child’s Garden of Verses. As with “At the Sea-Side,” this poem also provides a child’s perspective of life. The speaker contemplates their shadow as an entity separate from themself, observing how this shadow likes to grow taller and shrink to near nothingness. The shadow sticks so close to the speaker that it’s obvious “he’s a coward you can see” (Line 11). At the poem’s conclusion, the shadow seems to be completely separated from the speaker as the shadow stays in bed in the morning while the speaker gets up to begin their day.

"Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest" by Robert Louis Stevenson (1882)

“Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest” was first printed in Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island in 1882. Treasure Island is a tale of adventure with swashbuckling pirates and sailing to distant islands. The plot focuses on a teenage boy named Jim Hawkins and is often considered to be a coming-of-age story. This particular poem contains all of the typical tropes of a pirate adventure, including the call of “Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” (Lines 2, 4) Though “At the Sea-Side” appeared in A Child’s Garden of Verses, with its focus on oceanic travel, the adventures of Treasure Island and “Fifteen men on the Dead Man’s Chest” would have been equally as enthralling for a younger audience.