Lyric Poem · For Kids

The Land of Nod

by Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

From breakfast on through all the day

At home among my friends I stay;

But every night I go abroad

Afar into the land of Nod.

All by myself I have to go,

With none to tell me what to do—

All alone beside the streams

And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

The strangest things are there for me,

Both things to eat and things to see,

And many frightening sights abroad

Till 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 clear

The curious music that I hear.

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“The Land of Nod” by Robert Louis Stevenson — quilloak.com/poems/the-land-of-nod

Quick facts

Poem: The Land of Nod
Poet: Robert Louis Stevenson
Published: 1885
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Rhyming Poems
Themes: For Kids, Dreams & Sleep

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
End rhyme: AABC in 75% of the stanzas. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
Line length: Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894
Source record: WikisourceThe Land of Nod by robert-louis-stevenson, Wikisource transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: 1885
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 31814f11b1c4bab9…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Rhyming Poems For Kids Dreams & Sleep

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