A Child's Garden of Verses

Child narrator

Also known as the child · I

The child whose first-person voice narrates the verses, imagining adventures through play and recalling childhood. In the closing poem, the grown narrator says that this child has grown up and gone away.

Alison Cunningham

Also known as nursie · nurse · my second Mother

The narrator’s devoted nurse and second mother, who cared for him through illness, read to him, and shared his childhood.

Mary

A named child mentioned on the page following “Bed in Summer”; the text gives no further identifying details.

Hans

A named child mentioned on the page following “Bed in Summer”; the text gives no further identifying details.

Biddy

A named child mentioned on the page following “A Thought”; the text gives no further identifying details.

Fifine

A named child mentioned on the page following “A Thought”; the text gives no further identifying details.

Mama

Also known as mamma

The narrator’s mother, who puts out the light at night and calls him home; she is also present in the bedtime scene.

Tom

The narrator’s playmate, who helps build an imagined ship on the stairs and gets hurt during their game.

Auntie

Also known as Chief of our aunts

The narrator’s beloved aunt, remembered as central to the childhood of her dozen nurselings.

Nursie

Also known as nurse

The narrator’s nurse, who helps him into bed, wraps him warmly, and joins him in childhood activities; the dedication identifies Alison Cunningham as his nurse.

Papa

Also known as father · my papa

The narrator’s father, described as a banker and as disagreeing with the narrator’s claim that a found stone is gold.

Willie

A cousin of the narrator, addressed alongside Henrietta as a companion in childhood garden games.

Johnnie

A child in the marching game, beating the drum.

Mary Jane

Also known as Jane

A child who commands the marching party and is playfully hailed as its great commander.

Peter

A child who leads the rear of the marching party.

The miller

The miller at the riverside mill, whose hearing and sight are worn by the work.

Leerie

The lamplighter who goes through the streets at night with his ladder and lantern.

Minnie

The narrator’s childhood companion and cousin, remembered sharing a room and games with him; she is now far away in India.

Uncle Jim

Also known as Dear Uncle Jim

The narrator’s uncle, who is shown smoking his pipe in the garden that the child imagines as a setting for historic adventures.

Robert Bruce

A historical figure whom the child imagines sharing an enchanted spell in the garden.

William Tell

A historical figure whom the child imagines sharing an enchanted spell in the garden.

Henrietta

A cousin of the narrator, addressed alongside Willie as a companion in childhood garden games.

Louis Sanchez

Also known as Little Louis Sanchez · my name-child

The narrator’s young namesake, who lives in Monterey and is expected to read the rhyming volume when older.

The child in the garden

Also known as the child of air · another child

The childhood self seen by readers through the book’s imagined window; the closing poem says he has grown up and only a childlike image remains.

The Unseen Playmate

Also known as the Friend of the Children

An invisible companion who appears when children are happy and playing alone, joins in their games, and looks after their toys.

Dolly sailor

Also known as the dolly

A toy sailor at the helm of the narrator’s little ship, whom the narrator imagines coming alive to sail and explore with him.

The mother bird

Also known as mother

A bird keeping four eggs warm in a nest; the eggs hold her soon-to-hatch young.

The gardener

Also known as Old and serious, brown and big

An older, serious worker who tends the garden and cuts hay, and whom the narrator wishes would play with him.

The mother

Also known as my mother

The narrator’s mother, addressed in a poem recalling his childhood and the sound of his little feet in the house.

The unnamed tramp

Also known as a tramp

A passerby seen standing and gazing from the railway carriage.

The unnamed child gathering brambles

Also known as a child who clambers and scrambles

A child glimpsed alone by the railway, climbing and gathering brambles.

The unnamed runaway cart driver

Also known as man and load

A man with a load in a cart that has run away on the road.