The Land of Counterpane

The poem opens by introducing a first-person speaker. The speaker notes, “When I was sick […]” (Line 1), immediately establishing a firsthand account of the speaker’s experience. The opening line explains how the speaker remains bedridden from illness by also mentioning “lay a-bed” (Line 1). The speaker next mentions that “[t]wo pillows” are located at the top of the bed “at [the speaker’s] head” (Line 2). Also located with the speaker are “all [the speaker’s} toys” (Line 3), which lie beside the speaker (Line 3). These toys are meant to preoccupy the speaker during confinement. The toys make the speaker “happy all the day” (Line 4). This emotion may be opposite of what the reader might expect the speaker to feel. This inclusion of “toys” makes readers consider that the speaker is a child, and any child confined to bed due to illness would presumably be depressed and miserable. This particular child, however, feels happiness thanks to the toys.

The beginning of the second stanza relates the passing of time during sickness: “[F]or an hour or so” (Line 5), the speaker lies in bed with their toys. There is no comment or concern about the length of time in bed or the duration of the sickness. The time change is stated indifferently, matter-of-factly. It is in Stanza 2 where the speaker exerts agency over their toys. The speaker watches their “leaden soldiers go” (Line 6). Typically, the toys would need to be moved by some agent or force. Yet the toys seemingly move on their own. There is no indication that the speaker is physically moving and/or playing with them. Rather, the toys “go” (Line 6) and act through their own agency. The speaker watches his soldier toys work through “different uniforms and drills” (Line 7). The mundanity of the bedroom the speaker is located in and the magic of the toys moving on their own blend together at the end of this second stanza. The speaker sees the toy soldiers marching “among the bed-clothes” (Line 8). These sheets transform and are seen by the speaker as “hills” (Line 8). The speaker’s sense of reality becomes blurred in their fever daze as their imagination takes over.

Imagination gets full reign of the bedroom in the third stanza. In addition to imagining their toy soldiers marching across the bed, the speaker “sent” their “ships in fleets” (Line 9) sailing “up and down among the sheets” (Line 10). The world of the speaker expands to include not only land but sea as well. These ships are presumably some of the toys which are lying in the speaker’s sickbed along with the toy soldiers, and just as the soldiers, the ships are brought to life through the speaker’s creativity. As the speaker’s imagination continues to run rampant, they envision “trees and houses” (Line 11) and become the architect of fictitious civilizations as they “planted cities” (Line 12). The scope of the speaker’s world-building creativity extends their reality beyond their sick room, so that what initially seems like a limiting situation is not so limiting after all.

In the final stanza, the speaker turns their attention to their own role and existence in this new world they have constructed from bed. The speaker is a “giant great and still” (Line 13) who resides “upon the pillow-hill” (Line 14). The speaker presides above these soldiers, ships, and cities. From their position at the top of their bed, they watch the scene before them develop, towering over the model-sized ships and battalions. They observe the entire landscape, including “dale and plain” (Line 15), meaning the valleys and flat stretches formed by the cavernous folds and taught corners of the sheets. All of this land the speaker labels as “counterpane” (Line 16), referring to the bedspread which covers them. But it is not only a bedspread; with a little imagination, it is so much more. The speaker describes this land they create and inhabit as “pleasant” (Line 16), which is again counter to what the reader may assume this child’s experience with illness may be. Anyone who has gotten sick before would most likely describe it as anything but pleasant. Yet, the child’s imagination is able to mollify any discomfort. As long as they have their toys and imagination, they are happy.