Wednesday 24 August 2011

The Gardener by Robert louis Stevenson


I love Robert Louis Stevenson's poems.My favourite one is "The Gardener".It is from 'A Child's Garden of Verses'.It is about a gardener who doesn't like to talk.My favourite lines are:
"O how much wiser you would be
To play at Indian wars with me!"

You can read the poem here:

THE GARDENER

The gardener does not love to talk,
He makes me keep the gravel walk;
And when he puts his tools away,
He locks the door and takes the key.

Away behind the currant row
Where no one else but cook may go,
Far in the plots, I see him dig
Old and serious, brown and big.

He digs the flowers, green, red and blue,
Nor wishes to be spoken to.
He digs the flowers and cuts the hay,
And never seems to want to play.

Silly gardener! summer goes,
And winter comes with pinching toes,
When in the garden bare and brown
You must lay your barrow down.

Well now, and while the summer stays
To profit by these garden days
O how much wiser you would be
To play at Indian wars with me!

Other poems I like from 'A Child's Garden of Verses' are Where go the boats, Time to Rise, Bed in Summer and My Shadow..


One of my favourite books- Charlotte's Web by E.B White

“Charlotte’s Web” is a fantastic book .I liked the book very much .The story is about a pig named Wilbur who is brought up by a girl named Fern .He was raised inside the house only because he was born small. But as he grows up he becomes a barn pig. He was bored and lonely until he met Charlotte, the beautiful grey spider who also lived in the barn. There was also a rat called Templeton who had a big hole in which he stored things.

The story goes like this-Wilbur is in danger because when he becomes bigger he will be killed and fried for dinner, but Charlotte thinks of a wonderful way to save Wilbur from his unhappy fate by writing nice words about him in her web so that people will think he is talented. On finding this the people took Wilbur to a contest of pigs, but another fat pig won first prize in the contest. But all this time Charlotte was pregnant and dying.

After they reached the barn Charlotte died but her egg sac was still there. After a few days the children were born. Wilbur was very happy. One fine sunny day, one spider climbed up the fence and did something Wilbur was surprised of. It made a balloon out of the silk and sailed into the air. Then another went, then another and soon the air was filled with tiny balloons, each carrying a spider.”Come back”, Wilbur cried.”Good bye”, they called .When everyone were gone, Wilbur was disappointed of losing Charlotte’s children. He cried himself to sleep. Late that afternoon he heard a tiny voice say ”Hello”. He looked up to see three baby spiders. They were Charlotte’s daughters .He named them Aranea, Nellie and Joy. Together they lived happily for generations. The story moved me very much.


Little Women by Louisa May Alcott



This was my first book in Muscat.I found it very interesting. The story is about the March sisters who lived with their mother. They were Amy, Beth, Jo and Meg. Their father, Mr. March who was in the army used to call his daughters ‘Little Women’ and that’s how the book got the name. There are many stories in the novel. The one I liked the most is the first one which is about an unusual Christmas Eve. The interesting incident in the story is that the March sisters should have got presents, they bought presents for their mother with their own money. That sounds wonderful , isn’t it? The message the book gives is that you shouldn’t be selfish! My favourite character is Amy.