Robert Louis Stevenson

Young Night-Thought

All night long and every night,

When my mama puts out the light,

I see the people marching by,

As plain as day before my eye.


Armies and emperors and kings,

All carrying different kinds of things,

And marching in so grand a way,

You never saw the like by day.


So fine a show was never seen

At the great circus on the green;

For every kind of beast and man

Is marching in that caravan.


As first they move a little slow,

But still the faster on they go,

And still beside me close I keep

Until we reach the town of Sleep.