The poem My Bed is a Boat reminds me of being a kid and playing with my friends on the couch pretending it was a rowboat.  What fun!

You can read the poem below and listen along on YouTube videos.  There are 3 renditions: the 1st is recited, the 2nd is sung as a lullaby, and the 3rd is sung in a cabaret style…

My Bed is a Boat
by Robert Louis Stevenson

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.

Here you can hear the poem recited:

Here you can hear the poem sung as a lullaby:

Here’s a cabaret rendition:

These renditions show how you can take a poem and turn it into all sorts of wonderful things!

-Mama Lisa

Illustration from “A Child’s Garden of Verses” by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Charles Robinson (1914).