The Swing

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

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

14 content lines · 84 words · Est. recitation about 51 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.

The Swing

  How do you like to go up in a swing,
       Up in the air so blue?
  Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
       Ever a child can do!

  Up in the air and over the wall,
       Till I can see so wide,
  River and trees and cattle and all
       Over the countryside--

  Till I look down on the garden green,
       Down on the roof so brown--
  Up in the air I go flying again,
       Up in the air and down!


                                           XXXIV