In broad daylight the books I see

Shine from the tall shelves down on me

Brighter than summer Sunday noon,

And anything may happen soon.

Sitting deep in the big green chair,

I suddenly heard them talking there.

A boy's will," said the poet then,

Is the wind's will," and sailor-men

Sang from the pages of "Westward Ho!"

And "Treasure Island" a "Roll and go"

That echoed light and clear and quick

From "Pinafore" and "Moby Dick."

Will Shakespeare called aloud, and Kim

And Nicholas Nickleby answered him.

Out of the pages, onto the shelves,

Ran Becky and Tom and Huck themselves.

Danny Deever and Saul sat down

At the feet of the fighting man John Brown.

David and Mowgli were also there,

And a listening boy I thought I knew,

Who might have been me or might be you.

I saw them all from the big green chair,

And heard them there in the quiet light

On the backs of books, so real and right

They must be alive, just as they seem.

And what I am telling is not a dream.