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.

by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) , "My bed is a boat", from A Child's Garden of Verses, published 1885

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by Harry Brook (1893-?) , "My bed is a boat", published 1930. [unison voices and piano]
by William Wallace Gilchrist (1846-1916) , "My bed is a boat", published 1897 [voice and piano], from The Stevenson Song-Book
by Cecilia (Cissie) Loftus , "My bed is like a little boat", published <<1940. [voice and piano]
by (Gerald) Graham Peel (1878-1937) , "My bed is a boat", published 1910. [voice and piano]
by Marvin Radnor , "My bed is a boat", published 1923. [voice and piano]
by Teresa del Riego (c1876-1968) , "My bed is a boat", published 1909 [voice and piano], from Children's pictures, no. ?
by Percy Turnbull (1902-) , "My bed is a boat", published c1925. [unison voices and piano]
by Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson (1931-) , "My bed is a boat", published 1968 [high voice and piano], from From a child's garden, no. 8.

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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