Let’s read a poem and study it together!
Not sure how to study a poem? Here are some ideas! Choose one or all of these:
- Read aloud and enjoy the poem
- Neatly write out your favorite stanza for handwriting practice or…
- Copy and paste the poem into your word processor and print it out
- Draw a picture about the poem
- Circle or color-code the words that rhyme. (Learn about rhyme here!)
- Read more about the author’s life
- Share with someone you love <3
My Shadow
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 see.
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 he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.
He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close besides me, he’s a coward, you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nurse as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
~Robert Louis Stevenson
Hungry for more? Check out…
Poetry Activity (for kids, adults, and everyone in between): Write Your Own Nursery Rhymes
Advanced Poetry Lesson: Odes (Week 1 of 2)
Hannah Spuler 
3 thoughts on “Poem Study: My Shadow”