Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.
36. Looking-glass River
S
Here a wimple, there a gleam—
O the clean gravel!
O the smooth stream!
Paven pools as clear as air—
How a child wishes
To live down there!
Floating on the shaken pool
Down in cool places,
Dim and very cool;
Dipping marten, plumping trout,
Spreads in a twinkle
And blots all out.
All below grows black as night,
Just as if mother
Had blown out the light!
See the spreading circles die;
The stream and all in it
Will clear by-and-by.