The Land of Counterpane

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1885

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Ships

In addition to the speaker’s soldiers, ships serve as another vessel of the imagination. Readers can assume that the ships are also “toys” (Line 3) the speaker is animating with their creativity. The speaker “sent their ships in fleets” (Line 9) into the world they are building “[a]ll up and down among the sheets” (Line 10). When one considers a ship, they think of journeys and voyages. They think of sailing to unexplored worlds, to new lands just waiting to be discovered. Ships enable individuals to travel beyond the physical limitations of land, and to take advantage of the freedom traveling by water provides. Water flows and inspires sensations of movement as opposed to static stagnation. In a poem about the freedom provided by the imagination, the ship is symbolic of this freedom and of the imagination itself. The speaker’s imagination is able to carry them to new worlds and on new adventures. Moreover, water is symbolic of the unknown, of depths, and of the collective unconscious. The speaker’s ship, or imagination, floats across the unknown to experience whatever comes up through the imaginative depths.

Toys

Throughout the poem, toys serve as a vehicle of the speaker’s imagination. When they are sick in bed, the speaker describes how “all my toys beside me lay” (Line 3). These toys are what are animated by the speaker’s creativity to provide endless hours of entertainment and distraction. The soldiers “With different uniforms and drills” (Line 7) march amongst the bedsheets transformed into hills and valleys. These toys are given “life” and made to move based on the speaker’s whims. They represent the power of the creative mind, how what is inanimate can be made animate, how stories can be brought to life.

Giant

As the speaker sets the scene of the poem for readers, they describe their position lying in bed with “two pillows at my head” (Line 2). Their spot at the head of the bed gives them full view of the “land of counterpane” (Line 16). Then, at the end of the poem, the speaker identifies themself as the “giant great and still” (Line 13), who “sits upon the pillow-hill” (Line 14). This elevated position above the valleys, rivers, and hills of the sheets signifies the authority the speaker feels. Referring to themself as a “giant” symbolizes the self-confidence the speaker embodies thanks to the power of their imagination. They may be down and out because of sickness, but illness is not enough to dampen their creativity. The speaker is still able to maintain their sense of self, represented by their self-description of being a “giant.” The speaker is able to retain their identity and doesn’t let their sickness be all that defines them.