Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) published A Child's Garden of Verses in 1885. Along with Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde it is among his best known works, and is a timeless classic of English language poetry.
I was first introduced to his timeless A Child's Garden of Verses by my mother as a child myself, and the simple, extremely perceptive moments beautifully rendered in Stevenson's effortless cadences and perfect rhymes went a long way, I imagine, to making me believe from an early age that poetry was the best way to explain and discover everything, and subsequently made me want to be a poet myself, or at least surround myself with poetry as much as possible. Reading these poems to my own children is one of my fondest memories of young fatherhood. I can think of no other single volume of verse that is more essential for a child's puerile ears and curious mind.