My Bed Is a Boat Lyrics
A child's bed becomes a little boat: a nurse helps the child aboard, the child says good night to the friends on shore, sails off with a slice of cake and a toy or two, and wakes to find the vessel safe beside the pier. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote it in four verses of four lines.
My Bed Is a Boat
My bed is like a little boat;
Nurse helps me in when I embark;
She girds me in my sailor's coat
And starts me in the dark.
At night I go on board and say
Good-night to all my friends on shore;
I shut my eyes and sail away
And see and hear no more.
And sometimes things to bed I take,
As prudent sailors have to do;
Perhaps a slice of wedding-cake,
Perhaps a toy or two.
All night across the dark we steer;
But when the day returns at last,
Safe in my room beside the pier,
I find my vessel fast.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/my-bed-is-a-boat/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Lullabies
- Written by
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Tune
- Read slowly with a rocking beat, softer with each verse
- Best for ages
- 2 to 7 years
What Does My Bed Is a Boat Mean?
The whole poem is one picture. The bed is a boat, the dark is the sea, and going to sleep is setting sail. In the first verse Nurse helps the child in and "girds" them in a sailor's coat, which means she fastens it with a belt, then "starts me in the dark". In the second the child goes on board, says good night to the friends on shore, shuts both eyes and sails away.
The third verse is about packing. Sailors have to be prudent, which means careful and sensible, so the child brings supplies to bed: perhaps a slice of wedding-cake, perhaps a toy or two. Wedding-cake is a rich fruit cake. In the fourth verse they steer across the dark all night, and when day returns the child is back in a room "beside the pier" and finds the "vessel fast", which means tied up and safe.
That ending is what makes it a bedtime poem for a child who dislikes the dark. The voyage is long, but the boat always comes home to the same room in the morning.
Each verse has two rhymes, alternating, such as boat and coat, shore and more, take and cake, and steer and pier.
History and Origin
Stevenson's 1885 collection holds this poem. That book is dedicated to Stevenson's own nurse, Alison Cunningham, and nurses turn up in several of its poems, as Nurse does here.
Learning Activities
- Bed voyage: read the poem at bedtime and let the child say good night to the "friends on shore", meaning family members or toys, one by one.
- Pack the boat: ask what the child would take on a night voyage, and choose one toy to go in the bed.
- Morning harbour: in the morning, ask what the voyage was like and where the vessel landed.
- Draw the boat: draw the bed as a boat with a mast, a flag and a pier at the side.