A child walking down a winding forest path at night under a full moon. A fox and an owl are nearby, with the owl flying overhead. The scene is illuminated by moonlight and fireflies, creating a magical atmosphere.
Illustration of a hazelnut with a partially cracked shell, alongside a stylized tree branch with leaves, set against a blue and black abstract background.
A digital illustration of a light brown exclamation mark with a yellow clue attached at the base, a human-like bone, and a tree on a yellow background.

The Land of Nod

Image with a nut, ginger root, and a music note.
A digital illustration of a shelled nut, likely a hazelnut, with a smaller green object and a music note icon in the background.
A digital illustration featuring a large nut in the center, a drawn musical note on the left, and a small green object on the right, all set against an abstract background of blue, black, and purple streaks.

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.

Robert Louis Stevenson
from A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885)

Return to Poems