Lyric Poem · For Kids

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 like so much to play,

To have to go to bed by day?

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“Bed in Summer” by Robert Louis Stevenson — quilloak.com/poems/bed-in-summer

Quick facts

Poem: Bed in Summer
Poet: Robert Louis Stevenson
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: For Kids, Nature, Summer, Winter

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 12 lines · 3 quatrains
End rhyme: AABB in 67% of the stanzas — couplets. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
Line length: Long metre. Four eight-syllable lines (8.8.8.8), the hymn stanza's longer cousin.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894
Source record: PoetryDBBed in Summer by robert-louis-stevenson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 cf0b64f89a427143…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem For Kids Nature Summer Winter

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