The Old Street Lamp Page #3

The Old Street Lamp is a children's book by Hans Christian Andersen about an aging street lamp which is no longer able to fulfill its purpose, and its experiences as it transitions to its new stage of life. The lamp is discarded and finds its way into different situations, revealing new perspectives, from a poor poet's attic to a plant nursery. It's a poignant tale about the inevitability of change, the worth of simple things, and life's twilight.

• Children

								

to stand on a green writing table, in a very pleasant room; many books
were scattered about, and splendid paintings hung on the walls. The
owner of the room was a poet, and a man of intellect; everything he
thought or wrote was pictured around him. Nature showed herself to him
sometimes in the dark forests, at others in cheerful meadows where the
storks were strutting about, or on the deck of a ship sailing across
the foaming sea with the clear, blue sky above, or at night the
glittering stars. "What powers I possess!" said the lamp, awaking from
his dream; "I could almost wish to be melted down; but no, that must
not be while the old people live. They love me for myself alone,
they keep me bright, and supply me with oil. I am as well off as the
picture of the congress, in which they take so much pleasure." And
from that time he felt at rest in himself, and not more so than such
an honorable old lamp really deserved to be.
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