Young Night-Thought Lyrics
When the light goes out, a child sees a grand parade of people and beasts marching past, finer than any circus, until it reaches Sleep. Robert Louis Stevenson's sixteen lines show how falling asleep can feel like a procession.
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.
At first they move a little slow,
But still the faster on they go,
And still beside them close I keep
Until we reach the town of Sleep.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/young-night-thought/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Lullabies
- Written by
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Tune
- Read like a slow march that speeds up in the last verse and fades to a whisper
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
What Does Young Night-Thought Mean?
The poem is about what happens in the dark. "All night long and every night", when the child's mama puts out the light, the child sees people "marching by, as plain as day". They are a grand crowd: armies and emperors and kings, all carrying different kinds of things. It is a finer show than any seen "at the great circus on the green", because every kind of beast and man is in the same caravan, which here means a long line of travellers moving together.
The last verse shows how the parade works as a lullaby. At first the marchers move slowly. Then they go faster, and the child keeps close beside them all the way to "the town of Sleep". So the procession is the way that the mind slips off into a dream. The speaker is not frightened of the dark: the poem calls it a fine show.
For a child who sees shapes in the dark, the poem is a useful friend. It treats the pictures as a show and not a danger, and says they lead to sleep.
The pairs of lines rhyme: light and night, by and eye, kings and things, way and day, seen and green, man and caravan, slow and go, keep and Sleep.
History and Origin
Stevenson published the poem in his 1885 collection.
Learning Activities
- Night parade: march round the room with a toy in each hand, slowly at first and then faster, and tiptoe to bed at the end.
- Who marches? ask each child which person or animal they would add to the procession.
- Lights out: after the poem, switch off the light together and describe the first shape the child sees.
- Draw the caravan: draw a long line of marchers across a strip of paper, ending with a bed.