"In Winter I Get Up at night"

October 05, 2011

This is the first line in a poem that I recite every year at this time as the days become shorter. I never can remember the whole poem, so I get on one of MCPL's Research Databases called Columbia Granger's World of Poetry. If you're looking for a poem, this database lets you search for a poem by author, title, first line, last line, subject, or keyword. Some poem listings contain the full text of the poem, a biography of the poet, and poem commentary discussing the poem's meaning. I searched for my poem under advanced search, put the first line in, and found out the following:

Title: Bed in Summer
Author: 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?

Sue T.
Smithville Branch