The Bedroom's Welcome by Ruth Collie
The Bedroom's Welcome is a short personification poem by Ruth Collie in which the room itself speaks, addressing a weary occupant returning at day's end. The bedroom greets the arriving person as "Friend" and "Guest," describing itself in maternal terms: its walls will enfold the visitor with tenderness, functioning as warm, protective arms. The room invites its guest to shed the day's accumulated troubles as though discarding old, worn clothing, replacing that burden with metaphorical "robes of peace" that will clothe the sleeper until morning. The poem then turns to the dreams the room has prepared, describing them as delicate shadows that will fill the space and bloom on the walls like fairy flowers throughout the night. Some of these dreams are imagined hovering above the sleeper's head, while others press gently against the sleeping heart, guiding the guest on a journey to a "magic mart." The bed itself is reimagined as a "Dreamship," carrying the sleeper into the realm of sleep and imagination. The piece closes as it began, with the room repeating its welcome, this time addressing the visitor as "Tired Soul" and asking for outstretched hands in a gesture of trust and friendship. The room affirms that the day has ended and promises rest, completing the poem's central conceit: the bedroom as a nurturing, almost living presence that shelters and restores the person who enters it each night.
By Ruth Collie · Genre: Poetry, Romantic Poetry, Fantasy