Pirate Story Lyrics
Three children sail across a meadow in a basket, steering by a star, and have to escape a squadron that turns out to be a herd of cattle. It is a poem about make-believe, and there is not a single pirate in it. The words are by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Pirate Story
Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,
Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea.
Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring,
And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.
Where shall we adventure, to-day that we're afloat,
Wary of the weather and steering by a star?
Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat,
To Providence, or Babylon, or off to Malabar?
Hi! but here's a squadron a-rowing on the sea:
Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar!
Quick, and we'll escape them, they're as mad as they can be,
The wicket is the harbour and the garden is the shore.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/pirate-story/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Tune
- Brisk and adventurous, speeding up at the cattle and ending in the safe harbour
- Best for ages
- 4 to 10 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing | Sit in a pretend boat and hold up three fingers. |
| Hi! but here's a squadron a-rowing on the sea | Make big rowing arms, left, right, left, right, for four slow beats. |
| The wicket is the harbour | Tiptoe to a pretend gate and pat it as you arrive safe. |
What Does Pirate Story Mean?
The poem is a game of pretend. Three children are "afloat" in a meadow. The boat is a basket in the grass, and the waves are the grass itself, moving in the wind of spring. The lea is another word for a meadow. In the second verse they ask where they should "adventure" and name faraway places: Africa, Babylon and Malabar. Babylon was an ancient city, and Malabar is a coast in the south-west of India. They have no map and are "steering by a star", as sailors do.
The third verse is the excitement. A squadron, a group of ships, is coming at them over the sea. It turns out to be cattle "charging" over the meadow, and the children must "escape". The wicket, a small gate, is the harbour, and the garden is the shore. The poem ends there, with the children home in the garden.
The title promises a pirate story, but the only pirates are the children themselves, playing at sea, and they get all the thrill of a chase without anyone being hurt.
History and Origin
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 to 1894) wrote Treasure Island, the pirate adventure, in 1883, and his poem plays with the same love of adventure on a much smaller scale. The poem appears in his 1885 collection, whose poems often turn ordinary places, such as a garden, a hayloft or a bed, into the setting for a pretend journey.
Two editions of the book differ in one word of this poem: the plain edition prints "abroad in the basket" and the illustrated edition prints "aboard in the basket". This page uses aboard, the word that fits a boat.
Learning Activities
- Basket boat: sit in a large laundry basket or a box on a green blanket and take turns being the captain who calls out where to sail.
- Choose a port: look at a globe and find Africa and India, and ask where else a basket boat might go.
- Meadow waves: shake a green cloth up and down to make the grass waves while the grown-up reads the first verse.
- Safe harbour: mark a doorway as the harbour, and walk the whole group to it on the last verse.