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Lyric Poem · For Kids

Farewell to the Farm

by Robert Louis Stevenson

The coach is at the door at last;

The eager children, mounting fast

And kissing hands, in chorus sing:

Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

To house and garden, field and lawn,

The meadow-gates we swang upon,

To pump and stable, tree and swing,

Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

And fare you well for evermore,

O ladder at the hayloft door,

O hayloft where the cobwebs cling,

Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

Crack goes the whip, and off we go;

The trees and houses smaller grow;

Last, round the woody turn we sing:

Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Quick facts

Poem
Farewell to the Farm
Poet
Robert Louis Stevenson
Length
16 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
For Kids, Nature, Childhood

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
16 lines · 4 quatrains
Line length
Long metre. Four eight-syllable lines (8.8.8.8), the hymn stanza's longer cousin.
Refrain
Good-bye, good-bye, to everything!Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894
Source record
PoetryDBFarewell to the Farm by robert-louis-stevenson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 d8000ae6ab8b8f52
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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