My Bed is a Boat

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

Catalog grade guidance: K–5 — Short children’s lyric; good for early memorization and reading aloud.

18 content lines · 112 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 7 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #136.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

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.


                                           XXXII