The coach is at the door at last;

The eager children, mounting fast

And kissing hands, in chorus sing:

'Goodbye,  goodbye, to everything!

'To house and garden, field and lawn,

The meadow-gates we swung upon,

To pump and stable, tree and swing,

Goodbye, goodbye, to everything!

'And fare you well for everyone,

O ladder at the hayloft door,

O hayloft where the cobwebs cling,

Goodbye, goodbye, to everything!'

Crack goes the whip, and off we go;

The trees and houses smaller grow;

Last, round the woody turn we swing;

'Goodbye, goodbye, to everything!'

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) was born in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. He wrote poems, travelogues and novels. The poem 'Farewell to the Farm' has been taken from his poetry collection, A Child's Garden of Verse.

1. coach: (here) a large four-wheeled enclosed carriage, usually horse-drawn
2. eager: strongly wanting to do or have something
3. chorus: (here) a group of people producing words or sounds simultaneously
4. meadow-gates: gates enclosing a field or pasture
5. hayloft: a place at the top of a farm building, used for storing hay or straw