On this summer solstice of 2019, I want to share with you this sweet poem for children by Scottish poet Robert Louis Stevenson.
“Bed In Summer”
-Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
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?
-from A Child’s Garden of Verses
I love Robert Louis Stevenson. I remember reading this poem to my children when they were little. I would also swing with them on my lap and recite The Swing. Love it! 🙂
That’s such a sweet memory. I have a very old copy of RLS’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. I’ll have to look that one up this morning. 🙂
I remember it seeming hard as a child, going to bed ‘by day’, but nowadays I’m only too happy to turn in – even if it is still daylight! 😉 Lovely poem. 🙂
I hear ya! Haha! 😀
This is definitely how I felt as a child. Myself and my sister grew up living next door to our cousin’s. Our parents had very different ideas about bedtimes. My sister and I were sent to bed so early. The sun was shining for hours after and we would hang out of the bedroom window jealously watching our two cousins still playing out. So unfair! X
Oh that must have been horrible! You poor kid! 😀
Apart from that, great childhood. 🙂Xx
😀