Bed in summer
(Related Reading Sets)

Bed in Summer

by Robert Louis Stevenson from A Child’s Garden of Verses

Besides being a adventure novelist and a travel writer, Robert Louis Stevenson was also known for his children’s poetry. This poem is from his collection called “A Child’s Garden of Verses.” Students will read the poem and respond to questions on the language and the poem’s meaning.

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Bed in Summer

by Robert Louis Stevenson from A Child’s Garden of Verses

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?


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Questions

1. What time of day is the author talking about when he says, “In winter I get up at night/ And dress by yellow candle-light?



2. What word in the poem rhymes with street?



3. Usually, night and day mean a time of the day. In this poem, the author uses night and day to mean something else. What do you think night and day mean here?



4. Have you ever gone to bed when it is still daylight outside? If so, how did you like it? If not, what do you think it would be like?



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