Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson

[conuly]

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?

I probably posted this last year and I'll most likely post it next year or the one after.

Comments

[greenwoodside]

Love it. Deserves to be more widely known. It's mostly Stevenson's Requiem that I heard growing up.

[conuly]

We mostly heard Belloc's Jim, which is a charming thing to listen to on the subway.

[bibliofile]

I remember this feeling when I was a kid: I was extremely indignant. I could even hear other kids outside! Of course, I was probably 6 or 7 and not the oldest kid on the block.

[conuly]

Poor kiddo!

[dine]

feel free to post this as often as you'd like - it's a charming and very relatable poem! I quite remember that feeling from my childhood - it can't be bedtime, it's still light out

[conuly]

And it's all the more frustrating if other kids are playing outside and you're not.

[reynardo]

We had "A Child's Garden of Verses" when I was young, and, being in Sydney Australia, we didn't get the long twilights and very late sunsets, so the poem made no sense ...

... until I went to live in London for 3 years, and that light at 10pm suddenly made it all come clear.

[conuly]

People think London is about the same latitude as NYC, but no - it's Calgary up there!

[muninnhuginn]

One of my absolute favourites (along with Windy Nights)! Thank you for posting it.

[conuly]

:)

[imhilien]

I remember when I was a kid vowing I would be much happier going to bed when it was dark, instead of broad daylight still.

[conuly]

And have you kept your vow?

[imhilien]

Yes.

[wint3rpear]

Fanciful poetry!! ♥