Looking-Glass River Lyrics
A clean, smooth stream carries sailing blossoms and silver fishes, and the child watching it would like to live down in its cool pools. Then a trout plumps in, the rings spread, the picture blots out, and the poem asks for patience until the water clears. Twenty-four lines by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Looking-Glass River
Smooth it glides upon its travel,
Here a wimple, there a gleam -
O the clean gravel!
O the smooth stream!
Sailing blossoms, silver fishes,
Paven pools as clear as air -
How a child wishes
To live down there!
We can see our colored faces
Floating on the shaken pool
Down in cool places,
Dim and very cool;
Till a wind or water wrinkle,
Dipping marten, plumping trout,
Spreads in a twinkle
And blots all out.
See the rings pursue each other;
All below grows black as night,
Just as if mother
Had blown out the light!
Patience, children, just a minute -
See the spreading circles die;
The stream and all in it
Will clear by-and-by.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/looking-glass-river/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Tune
- Read smoothly and slowly, with a small stop before the ripple in the fourth verse
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
What Does Looking-Glass River Mean?
A looking-glass is an old word for a mirror, and the stream in this poem is as clear as one. The first verse describes the water gliding along over clean gravel, "here a wimple, there a gleam". A wimple is a Scots word for a small curl or ripple in the water. The second verse adds sailing blossoms, silver fishes and "paven pools as clear as air", pools floored with smooth stones, and ends with a wish: "How a child wishes to live down there!"
In the third verse the watchers see their own faces floating on the shaken pool. The fourth is the interruption. A wind, a dipping marten (the bird, usually spelled martin, that skims low over water) or a plumping trout makes a ripple that spreads and "blots all out". The fifth verse says everything below goes black, as if mother had blown out the light. The sixth tells the children to be patient. The rings die away, and the stream "will clear by-and-by".
Anyone can test it with a bowl of still water. A pebble drops in, the reflection breaks, and in a minute it comes back, as the poem says.
History and Origin
Stevenson was a Scot, and wimple is one of the Scots words that appear in his work. The poem was printed in his 1885 collection, the same book as the boat poem Where Go the Boats?
Learning Activities
- Bowl of water: fill a dark bowl, wait until it is still, look at your reflection, drop in a small pebble and wait for the rings to stop.
- Draw the river: paint a clear stream with gravel at the bottom, then add sailing blossoms and silver fishes.
- Be patient: after reading the last verse, wait together for a full minute in silence, as the poem asks.
- Look-alikes: find other things that work like a looking-glass, such as a puddle, a spoon or a window at night.