MY SHADOW - English poem

I have a little shadow that goes

                          in and out with me.

And what can be the use of him is

                          more than I can sec.
He is very, very like me from the

                        heels up to the head
And I see him jump before me.

                      When I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way

                              he likes to grow

Not at all like proper children, which is

                             always very slow;

For the sometimes shoots up taller like an

                             India-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that

                     There's none of him at all.

One morning, very early, before the

                                 sun I was up,

I rose and found the shining dew

                           on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an

                           arrant sleepyhead.

Had stayed at home behind me and was

                          Fast asleep in bed.

Robert   Lois Stevenson