Foreign Land
by Robert Louis Stevenson (Mulberry English Course Book)
The Poem :
"Up into the cherry thee
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.
I saw the next-door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers before my eye.
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
I saw the dimpling river pass
And be the sky's blue looking-glass;
The dusty roads go up and down
With people trampling into town.
If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships.
To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive."
Summary of the Poem :
This is a poem that describes what a child sees as he climbs to the top of a tree. To a grown-up the things he sees may seem ordinary, but the child finds them exciting. The child wishes to climb still higher.
The little child has climbed up the cherry tree holding its trunk with both his hands. He is looking at all round of his house. He tries to find out what is happening in his neighbourhood.
He sees the flower garden of the next house. He sees it full of flower. He sees many more pleasant places for the first time.
He sees the dimpling river beside. It reflects the image of the blue sky in its water. There is a dusty road along side. People are walking to town.
The little child wishes to find a higher tree so that he can see places which are more far from him. He wants to see the place where the river falls into the sea among the ships.
He imagines that the road leads to some fairy land. The children there dine at five o'clock and all their toys come alive.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
1. Fill in the blanks with words from the poem.
a. The river is compared to a looking glass for the sky.
b. We know the speaker is a child because he uses the word little-me to describe himself.
c. Farther is a word that is a synonym for 'further'. Your dictionary tells you that one difference between further and farther is farther means physical distance; further means non-physical distance.
d. Because the river seems to crease, fold and unfold, the adjective dimpling has been used to describe it.
e. Rivers start in mountains and end in seas. So if we call a river young when it is in the mountains we would call it grown-up by the time it reaches the sea.
2. Read these lines and answer the questions that follow.
a. "I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands."
i. Who has climbed the tree? What tree is it?
= A little child has climbed the tree.
It is a cherry tree.
ii. What are the foreign lands that can be seen from the top of the tree?
= The foreign lands that can be seen from the top of the tree are - the next-door garden which is adorned with flowers, the dimpling river, and the dusty road.
iii. Are these really foreign lands? Why does the speaker say they are?
= No, these are not really foreign lands. These are his neighbour.
The speaker says they are foreign lands because he has never seen then before. He is a little child. He is confined within his house only. So there was very little chance for him to see the neighbourhood before.
b. "If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see."
i. Why does the child wish to find a higher tree?
= The little child wishes to find a higher tree so that he can see places which are more far from him.
ii. What does the child wish to see from the top of the higher tree?
= He wants to see the place where the river falls into the sea among the ships. He also wants to see which place does the dusty road lead to.
iii. Why do you think the word 'farther' is repeated?
= I think the word 'farther' is repeated to emphasise on the longing of the child to see more places in his neighbourhood.
3. Would you like to travel and see foreign lands? What would you like to see?
= Yes, I would of course like to travel and see foreign lands.
I would like to see the Himalayan Mountains. I would like to see the playing of the rainbows up in the snow-covered mountain peaks. I would also like to dive deep into the oceans to find out the life there. I would like to visit the snow-covered poles to know the life style of the polar bears and penguins.
About the Poet :
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born in Scotland on 13 November 1850. Like the child in the poem, Stevenson loved to travel. He wrote many novels and poems. A Child's Garden of Verses is one of his best-known collections of poetry for children. Treasure Island and Kidnapped are two popular novels written by him. They are full of adventure and daring.