The Land of Counterpane

"The Land of Nod" by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)

Stevenson published this poem in his 1885 collection A Child’s Garden of Verses. As with “The Land of Counterpane,” this particular poem is also about worldbuilding. The speaker escapes into their dream realm at night, the Land of Nod, where they are the sole authority “With none to tell me what to do” (Line 6). This land is one where the strange and wonderful can be experienced, including “many frightening sights” (Line 11). “The Land of Counterpane” and “The Land of Nod” seem almost to be parallel worlds.

"The Dumb Soldier" by Robert Louis Stevenson (1913)

In “The Land of Counterpane,” the speaker imbues life into his toy soldiers, imagining and “making” them march and conduct drills. Similarly, the speaker in “The Dumb Soldier” attributes a consciousness to their small toy figurine, exhibiting the power of the imagination. In this particular poem of Stevenson’s, the speaker takes a toy soldier and hides it in a small hole in the earth. After spring and harvest time make the hole containing the soldier reappear, the small toy will have witnessed the “starry hours” (Line 25) and “fairy things that pass” (Line 27), leaving the soldier unable to articulate these things, thus forcing the speaker to spin the tales for their inanimate friend.