✦ A Classic Poem ✦
Boats sail on the rivers and ships sail on the seas, but clouds that sail across the sky are prettier far. And prettiest of all is the bow that bridges heaven.
Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 43 seconds ✦ Watch on YouTube
✦ The Poem ✦
by Christina Rossetti, from Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872). Public domain.
Boats sail on the rivers, And ships sail on the seas; But clouds that sail across the sky Are prettier far than these.
There are bridges on the rivers, As pretty as you please; But the bow that bridges heaven, And overtops the trees, And builds a road from earth to sky, Is prettier far than these.
✦ About the Poem ✦
Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) was one of the great English poets of the 1800s. Her book Sing-Song, published in 1872, is a collection of short, simple verses for very young children, and many of its poems are still learned by heart today.
This poem compares things people make, like boats and bridges, with things in nature, and nature wins every time. The rainbow becomes the most wonderful bridge of all, one that “builds a road from earth to sky.”
✦ Talk About It ✦