The Land of Nod
From breakfast on through all the dayAt home among my friends I stay,But every night I go abroadAfar into the land of Nod.
All by myself I have to go,With none to tell me what to do--All alone beside the streamsAnd up the mountain-sides of dreams.
The strangest things are these for me,Both things to eat and things to see,And many frightening sights abroadTill morning in the land of Nod.
Try as I like to find the way,I never can get back by day,Nor can remember plain and clearThe curious music that I hear.
Words in this poem
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Land of Nod is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Child's Garden of Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #136; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Louis Stevenson, The Land of Nod, in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #136, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevenson-childs-garden/the-land-of-nod.html, id L07189.
Form and metre
The Land of Nod is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 62% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AA-- dayA · stayA · abroad · nod
- 2 --AA go · do · streamsA · dreamsA
- 3 AA-- meA · seeA · abroad · nod
- 4 AABB wayA · dayA · clearB · hearB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| From breakfast on through all the day | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| At home among my friends I stay, | 8 | ········ |
| But every night I go abroad | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Afar into the land of Nod. | 8 | ˘/······ |
| All by myself I have to go, | 8 | ···/···· |
| With none to tell me what to do-- | 8 | ········ |
| All alone beside the streams | 7 | ·˘/˘/·· |
| And up the mountain-sides of dreams. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The strangest things are these for me, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Both things to eat and things to see, | 8 | ········ |
| And many frightening sights abroad | 8 | ·//˘˘·˘/ |
| Till morning in the land of Nod. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Try as I like to find the way, | 8 | ········ |
| I never can get back by day, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Nor can remember plain and clear | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| The curious music that I hear. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.