Origin of Row Row Row Your Boat

[bryanac23]

I have never heard where this song originates from, but I ran across a passage in my western literature class that may be the origin. I do not have the exact passage with me, but it was from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. Who knows where it comes from and how?

[athelas]

It originates from the final scene of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

[Kill_Roy]

@bryanac23

I have never heard where this song originates from, but I ran across a passage in my western literature class that may be the origin. I do not have the exact passage with me, but it was from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. Who knows where it comes from and how?

:o Interlude Meditation Archive :o

Let us break our verse down into its components, beginning at the final line, “Life is but a dream.” This refers to the doctrine of Maya, sometimes described as illusion or ignorance. As Meher Baba taught:

[APB]

Are you by any chance thinking of the song from Act 5, Scene 1?

Where the bee sucks. there suck I:
In a cowslip’s bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat’s back I do fly
After summer merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. (emphasis added)

If so, then the answer is almost certainly no, as the mere repetition of the word ‘merrily’ is hardly evidence of a link.

Of course, the song, ‘Full fathom five thy father lies’ does come from The Tempest.

[robardin]

@APB

Of course, the song, ‘Full fathom five thy father lies’ does come from The Tempest.

Whoa… that’s deep.

[Meeko]

And to think I saw some people claiming we where actually in “The Matrix” and that the “life is but a dream” line was the ‘proof’. :rolleyes:

[Improv_Geek]

@Meeko

And to think I saw some people claiming we where actually in “The Matrix” and that the “life is but a dream” line was the ‘proof’. :rolleyes:

Meeko, but the song cannot be explained, it can only be experienced.

[Walloon]

Here’s your answer. It’s not as old as I thought it was. The earliest known version of the words is found in sheet music titled The Old Log Hut, or Row, Row Your Boat, published by Firth, Pond and Co. of New York in 1852. The lyrics were uncredited; the melody by R. Sinclair was different than the one we know today, which was added in 1881.

I’m reminded of the poem Lewis Carroll wrote to close Through the Looking-Glass (1871):

                A boat beneath a sunny sky,
                Lingering onward dreamily
                In an evening of July —

                Children three that nestle near,
                Eager eye and willing ear,
                Pleased a simple tale to hear —

                Long had paled that sunny sky:
                Echoes fade and memories die.
                Autumn frosts have slain July.

                Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
                Alice moving under skies
                Never seen by waking eyes.

                Children yet, the tale to hear,
                Eager eye and willing ear,
                Lovingly shall nestle near.

                In a Wonderland they lie,
                Dreaming as the days go by,
                Dreaming as the summers die:

                Ever drifting down the stream —
                Lingering in the golden gleam —
                Life, what is it but a dream?

The poem is an acrostic, the first letter of each line spelling the name of the girl who inspired the Alice character.