Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Bed in Summer

Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson

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 so much like to play
To have to go to bed by day?

I was looking up poetry about summer today and I saw the title of this poem. Immediately I was jettisoned back to my childhood and hearing my mother quote this poem to my sisters and me as she tried to convince us that we needed to come inside and go to bed on summer days. We loved playing outside, so it was hard to get us to come inside. I have to say the poem didn't make it any easier, but it did let us know we weren't the only ones having to "go to bed by day."

Summer here in MA has been rainy, cloudy, and kind of dreary. The major outdoor bright spot has been the amazing bird activity at my office window bird feeder. I have several families who are regulars--nuthatches, cardinals, song sparrows, grosbeaks and others. The feeder reminds me of a very busy airport with planes/birds landing and taking off constantly =)

3 comments:

Ruth said...

I haven't heard this poem, but it is so true. I remember lying awake in bed as a child in a bright, hot room, long before the sun had set because it was 'bedtime'.

June said...

Oh, I love how you found the positive in all this June gloominess: the birds are beautiful. Now I'm off to watch them flying between the raindrops.

Unknown said...

So Robert Louis Stevenson's words came back to haunt you! Mama Kellogg liked to quote those lines to us, too--