Illustration of a boy looking out his window while still in his pajamas
Olga Lee
Poetry,

Bed in Summer

Robert Louis Stevenson was a famous author in the late 1800s. He wrote exciting poems and books, like Treasure Island, that people still love today.

By Robert Louis Stevenson | art by Olga Lee
From the May/June 2022 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will identify examples of imagery in a poem about a child’s bedtime during summer.

Complexity Factors
  • Purpose & Levels of Meaning
    “Bed in Summer” is about a child who is unhappy about having to go to bed while it’s still light out. Although the poem was written more than 100 years ago, students should find it relatable.
  • Structure
    The poem consists of three stanzas and has an a, a, b, b rhyme scheme. It’s written from a first-person point of view.
  • Language
    The language is conversational. The reader is directly addressed in the final stanza’s rhetorical question.
  • Knowledge Demands
    The poem, written more than 100 years ago, refers to dressing by candlelight.
Featured Skill: Figurative Language,
Other Key Skills: figurative language (imagery), fluency, visual literacy, rhyme, cause and effect, interpreting text, inference, main idea, point of view
Standards
  • Common Core
    RL.1, RL.2, RL.3, RL.4, RL.5, RL.6, RL.7, R.4, SL.1, L.1
  • TEKS Grade 3
    1a, 1c, 3a, 3b, 4, 6a, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 7c, 7d, 7g, 8c, 8d, 9b, 10d
Content-Area Connections
  • Social and Emotional Learning
    self-awareness (identifying one’s emotions)

Presentation View
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Imagery

Imagery is the language a poet uses to create pictures in a reader’s mind. Look for words and phrases that help you see, hear, and feel what a summer bedtime is like. 

Bed in Summer

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?

Reprinted by permission of THE POET. All Rights Reserved.

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Activities (4)
Skills Activities
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Skills Activities
Can't Miss Teaching Extras

If your students can’t get enough of summer-themed poetry, share these two delightful poems from past May/June issues: “How to Make an Ice Pop” and “A Circle of Sun.”

For another classic poem that features imagery, ask students to read Emily Dickinson’s “A Slash of Blue,” from our May/June 2017 issue. Ask students to compare this poem about the beginning of the day to “Bed in Summer,” a poem about a child’s day ending.

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
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Table of Contents

1. Preparing to Read

2. Close Reading

3. SEL Focus

4. Skill Building

5. Differentiate and Customize

Striving Readers, Multilingual Learners, Advanced Readers,

1. Preparing to Read

Set a Purpose for Reading (5 minutes)

  • Read the title of the poem along with the poet’s and illustrator’s names. 

  • Read the burst about the poet Robert Louis Stevenson and inform students that this poem was written more than 100 years ago.

  • Ask students what they think about when they hear the words bed in summer and write their responses on the board. You might want to create a concept web.

  • Tell students to keep the Think and Read prompt in mind as they read the poem.

Preview Text Features and Vocabulary (15 minutes)  

  • Go over any vocabulary terms that may be challenging for your students. You might want to explain that candle-light is an older way of writing the word candlelight and that hard in the poem means “difficult and unfair.”

  • Invite students to describe the illustration and then predict what the poem is about based on the title and the artwork.

2. Reading and Discussing the Poem

  • Read the poem to the class, play the audio version, or use Text-to-Speech.

  • Next, ask students to take turns reading aloud each line in the poem.

  • Discuss the Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions. (Alternatively, assign all or part of the Learning Journey Slide Deck.)

3. SEL Focus

Connecting to People From the Past

Although “Bed in Summer” was written more than 100 years ago, many children today will find it relatable. Lead a class discussion comparing and contrasting the experience of the child in the poem with your students’ experiences (and yours as a child). Ask your students how they would answer the child’s question at the end of the poem. 

Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions Questions (30 minutes)

  • What are the rhyming words in each stanza (group of lines) of the poem? (rhyme) The rhyming words in the first stanza are night and candle-light and way and day. The rhyming words in the second stanza are see and tree and feet and street. The rhyming words in the third stanza are you and blue and play and day.  
  • Read the first stanza. Think about how much later the sun rises in the winter. Why does the child “get up at night and dress by yellow candle-light” in winter? (cause and effect, imagery) When the child gets up in winter, it is still dark outside. He uses a candle to see while he’s getting dressed and ready for the day.
  • Think about what time of day the sun sets during the summer. Why does the child “go to bed by day” in summer? (cause and effect, interpreting text) When the child goes to bed in summer, the sun hasn’t set yet, and it is still light outside.
  • Read the second stanza. What does the child see and hear from his bed during summer? (imagery) He can see the birds hopping on the tree outside his bedroom window. He can hear the sound made by adults as they walk past where he lives.
  • Look at the illustration. What is the child doing in the picture? How does the picture help you understand his feelings about going to bed in the summer? (visual literacy, inference) In the picture, the child is kneeling on his bed and looking out his open bedroom window. He sees the birds on the tree, the people walking on the street, and the store windows across the street. The child looks as if he would like to be part of the busy summer scene outside his window. The illustration helps you understand that he’s not happy to be in bed.
  • What does the child want the reader of the poem to understand? (main idea, point of view) The child wants the reader to understand how unfair it is for him to have to go to bed in the summer when it’s still daylight and he wants to play.

4. Skill Building

Featured Skill: Figurative Language (Imagery)

Distribute or digitally assign our Imagery Skill Builder and have students complete it in class or for homework.

Differentiate and Customize
For Striving Readers

Before reading the poem, preview the Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions with students to help them know what they should be focusing on as they read. Read the poem aloud as students follow along. Read the poem again, this time pausing to work with the group on each question. Afterward, have students work in pairs to complete the Personification Skill Builder. 

For Multilingual Learners

The language related to train travel might be unfamiliar to your multilingual learners, so go over these terms before reading the poem: station, train, heading, luggage, one-way ticket, whistle blows, and climbs aboard. In addition, explain that “luggage packed with memories” is a figurative phrase: It’s not meant to be understood literally. Instead, it’s a way for the poet to express that the Old Year is like a person with a full suitcase. But instead of the suitcase being filled with clothing, it’s filled with memories of the events of the year that has just passed. Ask students to name a memory that might be in the Old Year’s suitcase.

For Advanced Readers

Have students compare and contrast this poem with “Make up your mind, March!,” also by Beverly McLoughland, in our March/April 2020 issue. Both poems use personification to describe a particular time of the year.

For Creative Writing

Ask students to write a paragraph from the perspective of either the Old Year or the New Year in the poem. What might the Old Year be thinking about as he waits for the train? What are some of the memories in his luggage? Does he greet the New Year as he walks by her? What do you think the New Year might be wondering as she steps from the train? How is she feeling? What is one of the first memories she might put in her luggage?

Text-to-Speech