Monday, November 05, 2012

The Land of Counterpane




The Land of Counterpane
by Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;




And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I asked Caroline to overhaul the sloop today for James, so she set it to rights, and then played a little. Apparently the ship sails sweetly, even beam on to a swell of sea green duvet.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your photos go so well with this poem; I expect this is the nicest thing I'll read all day, maybe all week. Thank you.

Roderick Robinson said...

Wow. You created a time machine. In my case A Child's Garden of Verse and since, as a sickly child, I spent much time in the Land of Counterpane those rhythms travelled through a seventy-year tunnel, rapped smartly on the portico to my memory banks, reminding me what it was like to have "two pillows at my head".

Does this herald a return to semi-serious blogging? Am I actually - actually! - going to be required to add your name to my links list?

And there's "hoist up the John B sail" too. How fecund you've suddenly become. And how profligate.

Julia said...

Anne, thank you!

Robbie, hard luck but you just might have to add me back. At least for November, I'm trying to write every day. After that I'll figure out another way to motivate myself to post more.

Anonymous said...

So sweet--adventure on the duvet!