Living

A Day in Bed

by Katherine Mansfield 1888–1923

From Poems (1923): Child Verses, 1907

Living

I wish I had not got a cold,
The wind is big and wild,
I wish that I was very old,
Not just a little child.

Somehow the day is very long
Just keeping here, alone;
I do not like the big wind’s song,
He’s growling for a bone.

He’s like an awful dog we had
Who used to creep around
And snatch at things--he was so bad,
With just that horrid sound.

I’m sitting up and nurse has made
Me wear a woolly shawl;
I wish I was not so afraid;
It’s horrid to be small.

It really feels quite like a day
Since I have had my tea;
P’raps everybody’s gone away
And just forgotten me.

And oh! I cannot go to sleep
Although I am in bed.
The wind keeps going creepy-creep
And waiting to be fed.

MLA

Mansfield, Katherine. “A Day in Bed.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/mansfield_k/58/.

Chicago

Mansfield, Katherine. “A Day in Bed.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/mansfield_k/58/.

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