Bed in Summer
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
Commentary
A touch of nostalgia today - this poem charmed and enchanted me when I was a child, with its hints of faraway lands and strange conditions. A funny thing, though, was that while I could quote the first two verses from memory, the very existence of the third came as a surprise to me. Nor was it a pleasant surprise - while verses one and two have a delightful air of bemusement, the last verse is, to put it quite frankly, whiny. It’s especially sad since the second verse would have been a fine (if somewhat abrupt) ending, and left the whole a good (if not great) children’s poem.
On the other hand, it is still a pretty nice poem, if a very ‘children’s’ one - the images manage to be quite evocative without being descriptive, and the rhythms are satisfyingly strong and regular (something that matters a lot when you’re a child - take a glance through any ten popular nursery rhymes). I think Stevenson’s fault at the end was an attempt to identify with his audience; one that, quite sadly, misfired.
— Martin
Notes: From ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’, the first poem in the book, in fact.
For a far better poem from the same source, see ‘From a Railway Carriage’
poem #84
And for the complete ‘A Child’s Garden of Verses’, a set of XLI poems ranging from the amazingly painful to the truly delightful, see http://geocities.com/~spanoudi/poems/rls02.html#1
Show 11 commentsHide comments
From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Martin DeMello · 12 April 2003
I take it you’re referring to the bit where I called the third verse ‘whiny’? A little, perhaps, but I stand by it - there does seem to me to be a distinct change of tone after the first two verses, and not for the better.
I do usually try to tone down negative criticism, but in this case I was disappointed by having a fond childhood memory diminished.
martin
Chris Moller · 12 April 2003
Your critique’s a bit presumptuous, don’t you think?
cm
EMILY BRAME · 11 December 2003
I love this poem - reading it over gives me lovely memories of Mum dressing me in pale yellow seersucker pjs and reading it to me to help take away the disappointment of day’s end and the wretched necessity of having to go to bed. I identified very much with the words of third verse back then. They express my sentiments exactly.
Lisa Hargreaves · 3 April 2005
I can understand your critique if you are reviewing the poem in it’s own right, rather than looking at the whole picture. If you have visited the basement bedroom/ New Town house in Edinburgh where Stevenson grew up and know how sick he was, you can sympathise with the third stanza. The scene is being painted in the first two stanzas with the writers feelings and opinion being added in the third. The third stanza, to me, makes the poem whole.
The poem is a wonderfully descriptive and emotive window on the world through a childs eyes. Any child would rather be able to go out an play than be stuck indoors on a summer’s day. A simple frustration we all must feel today, even as grown-ups.
I love this poem I have purchased a copy from 1898.
Lisa
Ps. Do not publish my e-mail address. Thank you
Louise Tamboer · 29 October 2005
I am 75 yrs. old and remembered this poem, word for word, since I was 11. My voice was recorded reciting it on my birthday at my friend’s house. I will always remember it. Louise Tamboer
Dandjeccles · 4 June 2006
My mother used to sing this song to us away back.
When you think of the music and words to songs now a days, it’s no wonder that the world is having the trouble they create by their songs and actions. To bad there aren’t more poems to guide the young these daysl
Mallorysmyth · 11 June 2006
It is 35 years since my mum watched me reciting this at a ‘feis’ in Dungannon, NI. Now I am looking it up for my daughter to enjoy. I hope it brings happy memories to her too.
Chris & Niki Harding · 18 June 2006
This is the only poem I learnt as a child that has stayed with me. I love the contrariness of the sentiment - a child not understanding the adult world or sense of timing - still as apt today when I have to call the children in from some wonderful summer game because it is school tomorrow. I found that the words fit the tune of “Golden Slumbers kiss your eyes” and have sung it to my own children as a lullaby since they were babies. Niki
Lesley · 17 October 2006
This poem holds such sentiment for me and so sums up the unjust of me going to bed during those beautiful, sultry summer evenings, when I could still hear laughter from a nearby garden… My daughters have been asked to write a poem about going to bed, and having quoted this non-stop have now been reminded from what childhood book it came from and have ordered immediately.
Becky Sublett · 3 February 2008
This has always been a favorite poem of mine. Over the years, I have recited it to children for one reason or another. They have all found it as delicious as I.
Rebecca Sublett
Margaret Poynter · 10 March 2008
My favorite poem. It takes me back to my childhood. It is a classic.