Here is a great poem for these lengthening days. Happy Poetry Friday!
Bed in Summer
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 like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
Ah, yes, one of the great injustices of childhood! Here in Italy, people think it slightly odd that we put our two-year-olds to bed at 8:30 or 9pm. If you walk downtown on a warm summer night, the place is FULL of babies from infants on up!
This is a challenge for little kids, especially now with our daylight savings time. Hard to understand why bedtime when it’s still light. RLS does it very well, doesn’t he?
I loved this poem as a child, and I love it still. My son still laments, “But it’s not even dark! Why do I have to go to bed?”
Ruth, from thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
I always loved this one, too. Thanks for the sweet memory. I wonder what he would write about daylight savings time!
I hear you’re coming to the Early Childhood Conference in Johnson City, Tennessee? I’m sooo jealous. I tried to get in but it was full!
I hope you post some stuff regarding your sessions and what you’re speaking on.
Erin
Eberhart’s Explorers