a turtle's garden of verses (by night)

People are quoting poetry all over livejournal. Well, over many
of the parts I read.

I don't read a whole lot of poetry. It's unusual for me to quote it, but this fell out of my mouth a few days ago, when I was talking with the local 4-year-old. She noticed that it was starting to get dark, and commented that it must be almost bedtime. (When she first started paying attention to such things, she had to go inside to bed around sunset, but now the sun is down at suppertime, hours before bedtime.) I explained about winter having long nights as well as cold weather.

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?

We talked about Robert Louis Stevenson writing about being a little boy. The 4-year-old thought he had some of the details right (one of her friends is a little boy who always has to go to bed early, and does think it hard) and others completely wrong (dressing by candle-light? don't be silly! candles are much too dangerous for children.)

This one's less suitable for children, but I've loved
it for decades. By Robert Frost.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain --and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.