My Kingdom
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Down by a shining water well 
I found a very little dell, 
         No higher than my head. 
The heather and the gorse about 
In summer bloom were coming out, 
         Some yellow and some red. 

I called the little pool a sea; 
The little hills were big to me; 
         For I am very small. 
I made a boat, I made a town, 
I searched the caverns up and down, 
         And named them one and all. 

And all about was mine, I said, 
The little sparrows overhead, 
         The little minnows too. 
This was the world and I was king; 
For me the bees came by to sing, 
         For me the swallows flew. 

I played there were no deeper seas, 
Nor any wider plains than these, 
         Nor other kings than me. 
At last I heard my mother call 
Out from the house at evenfall, 
         To call me home to tea. 

And I must rise and leave my dell, 
And leave my dimpled water well, 
         And leave my heather blooms. 
Alas! and as my home I neared, 
How very big my nurse appeared. 
         How great and cool the rooms!