I DONT understand poetry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE help?

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wwe2cool4u

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ok what the heck is he trying to say

The Lamplighter

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky;
It's time to take the window to see Leerie going by;
For every night at teatime and before you take your seat,
With lantern and with ladder he comes posting up the street.
Now Tom would be a driver and Maria go to sea,
And my papa's a banker and as rich as he can be;
But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I'm to do,
O Leerie, I'll go round at night and light the lamps with you!
For we are very lucky, with a lamp before the door,
And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more;
And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light,
O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him tonight! ]




PLEASE help and explain
 
The poem is by Robert Louis Stevenson, from his book "A Child's Garden of Verses." Do a web search on Stevenson's name and you'll find lots of information about him.

The speaker in this poem is a child who is looking out the window in the early evening, watching the neighborhood lamplighter at work. Stevenson was born in 1850, before the era of electric streetlights. In those days, a worker had to make the rounds each evening lighting streetlamp flames by hand.

The child thinks that Leerie the lamplighter has the coolest job ever. The child's father is a rich banker, and he has friends who want to grow up to be a driver and a sailor, but he dreams of growing up to be a lamplighter. Meanwhile, he hopes that Leerie will see him at the window and give him a friendly nod.
 
so pretty much at the beginning of the poem he is describing his daily schedule. i think that leerie is a friend of his. near the middle he describes his dad being rich. so maybe leerie isn't really rich and his dad doesn't like him being friends with leerie. so he sneeks out at night to be with him.
 
so pretty much at the beginning of the poem he is describing his daily schedule. i think that leerie is a friend of his. near the middle he describes his dad being rich. so maybe leerie isn't really rich and his dad doesn't like him being friends with leerie. so he sneeks out at night to be with him.
 
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