The Horses of the Sea Lyrics
Two verses compare two kinds of horse. The "horses of the sea" are the waves that rear up with white foam on top, and the horses of the land are the farm horses that eat corn and clover and do useful work. Rossetti sides with the ones on land.
The Horses of the Sea
The horses of the sea
Rear a foaming crest,
But the horses of the land
Serve us the best.
The horses of the land
Munch corn and clover,
While the foaming sea-horses
Toss and turn over.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-horses-of-the-sea/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Animal Rhymes
- Written by
- Christina Rossetti
- Tune
- Rolling and rocking for the sea verse, steady and calm for the land verse
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Rear a foaming crest | Raise both arms slowly above your head, then let your fingers wiggle down like foam. |
| Munch corn and clover | Move your jaw in a slow chewing motion, as a horse would. |
| Toss and turn over | Rock gently from side to side on your feet, tipping your head from left to right. |
What Does The Horses of the Sea Mean?
Nobody sees real horses in the sea, so the poet is using a picture. When a wave rises and curls over, it looks like a horse rearing up, and the white foaming crest on its top looks like a mane. The "horses of the sea" are the waves. The second verse calls them "foaming sea-horses" that "toss and turn over", which is just what a wave does as it breaks on the shore.
The poem then looks at the horses of the land, the working animals of a farm. They "serve us the best", which means they are the more useful of the two. They "munch corn and clover" in a field, while the waves have only their wild motion. The poet is not scolding the waves. She is noticing that a quiet, useful horse and a wild, bouncing one are very different, though both go by the same word.
Children enjoy the picture because it makes them look at two things they know in a new way: waves, and horses. The poem is built on a pair, with sea in the first verse and land in the second, and the line "The horses of the land" opens the second verse as the answer to the first.
History and Origin
Rossetti's Sing-Song is full of short poems that make a plain comparison like this one, and several of them are about animals and weather. In this poem the horse stands for two things at once, a wave and a farm animal, and the contrast gives the poem its shape.
Rossetti's picture of the waves as horses is a plain comparison of the kind children can try for themselves: look at a wave and say what animal it is.
Learning Activities
- Waves and horses: on the shore or in a bath, watch a small wave curl over, and talk about what animal it looks like.
- Two groups: one half of the group reads the sea verse in a rolling voice and the other half the land verse in a steady voice.
- Draw both: fold a page in half and draw a wave-horse on one side and a farm horse on the other.
- Clover hunt: look at a patch of grass for clover leaves and count how many leaflets each has.