Where Go the Boats?

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

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

18 content lines · 76 words · Est. recitation about 49 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.

Where Go the Boats?

  Dark brown is the river,
       Golden is the sand.
  It flows along for ever,
       With trees on either hand.

  Green leaves a-floating,
       Castles of the foam,
  Boats of mine a-boating--
       Where will all come home?

  On goes the river
       And out past the mill,
  Away down the valley,
       Away down the hill.

  Away down the river,
       A hundred miles or more,
  Other little children
       Shall bring my boats ashore.


                                            XV