Over the River and Through the Wood Lyrics
Every verse starts on the same road: a sleigh ride to grandfather's house on Thanksgiving Day, with the horse trotting through snow, the wind stinging toes, the barn-yard gate, and at the end grandmother's cap and the pumpkin pie. Lydia Maria Child wrote it in 1844.
Over the River and Through the Wood
Over the river and through the wood,
To grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river and through the wood -
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.
Over the river and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring,
"Ting-a-ling-ding!"
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!
Over the river and through the wood
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting-hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.
Over the river and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate
We seem to go
Extremely slow,
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood -
Now grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie!
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/over-the-river-and-through-the-wood/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Lydia Maria Child
- Tune
- A steady trotting rhythm, quickening in the verse about the hound and slowing at the gate
- Best for ages
- 3 to 9 years
What Does Over the River and Through the Wood Mean?
The poem is a journey with a goal. Each of the six verses begins the same way, "Over the river and through the wood", and each takes the family a little closer to grandfather's house. The horse "knows the way" so it can carry the sleigh through the white, drifted snow. The second verse is the cold one: the wind "stings the toes and bites the nose", the cold told as a small nip.
The third verse arrives with sleigh bells, "Ting-a-ling-ding!", and a "first-rate play" ahead (first-rate means excellent). The fourth urges on the horse, a dapple-gray (a gray with darker spots), to "spring over the ground, like a hunting-hound", meaning to run as fast as a dog that chases a trail. The fifth verse is the funniest: they are at the barn-yard gate and still seem to be going "extremely slow" because it is "so hard to wait". The sixth ends with grandmother's cap in sight and the question "Is the pudding done?", then a cheer for pumpkin pie.
Thanksgiving in the United States falls on the fourth Thursday of November, which is why the poem and song come out at this time of year. In this version the poem has 30 lines in 6 verses.
History and Origin
Lydia Maria Child (1802 to 1880) first published the poem in 1844, in the second volume of her book Flowers for Children. The poem is said to draw on her own childhood visits to her grandfather's house. The poem was later set to a tune and became a song that families sing on the way to a Thanksgiving dinner.
The first printing had twelve verses, and books often print only some of them. Different books also print slightly different wording. The copy on this page is from Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories, a children's reader of the early 1900s, where it is titled "Thanksgiving Day".
Learning Activities
- Journey drawing: draw the river, the wood, the barn-yard gate and the house on a long strip of paper, and trace the sleigh's route with a finger as you read.
- Trot with the beat: tap knees in a steady trot for verses one to three, speed up for the hound, and slow to a crawl at the gate.
- Waiting game: talk about the last verse. What does a child do when it is hard to wait? Try counting to ten slowly together.
- Pie questions: ask what each family eats on the holiday, and add the answers to a menu drawn on a plate.