The Swing Poem by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Swing

Rating: 3.6


How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Ian Fraser 15 July 2010

Stevenson was one of the first writers to write specifically for children and this lovely simple little poem is capable of being read by a 6 year old. To create literature for children is perhaps the greatest gift a writer can have and should never be underestimated. Although he wrote quite a lot I never feel, for all that, Stevenson ever really fulfilled his destiny as a writer, mainly as a result of his premature death. I still want to read the ending of 'Weir of Hermiston'...!

43 6 Reply
Michael Pruchnicki 15 July 2010

VISIT TO AN ART GALLERY It always amazes me how oil paint can simulate shapes and colors I recall a brown roof painted so brown that it held the barn tightly in a green field the sky overhead bathed the hills behind in gold and azure

22 17 Reply
Joey Valenzuela 15 July 2010

so brown is something extreme..... this means going up in a swing was the extremest thing the narrator had done...... there are other words in the poem that express extremes: air so blue the pleasantest thing see so wide, cattle and all (all=everything) roof so brown**** flying (isn't flying extreme?)

18 13 Reply
Michael Pruchnicki 15 July 2009

Brown or so brown - what in the world are these guys talking about? Is either one of them such an accomplished poet that they can respond to 'The Swing' with such chutzpah? The poem is exactly what it seems - something a grandparent might well recite to a child whose swing is being pushed 'up in the air and down! '

17 12 Reply
Joseph Poewhit 15 July 2010

Swings are associated with man's sub-conscious wish to fly.

22 7 Reply
Victor Sainz 30 April 2024

Beautiful well written

0 0 Reply
suman 18 July 2019

what is the poem about?

1 4 Reply
jayson 29 March 2019

i like this author he is amazing

2 1 Reply
Sandra Phillips 05 December 2018

One of my favorite poets . Heard one he wrote about God at church Tonight

2 2 Reply
Bhagabat Prasad Hotta 11 November 2018

Very very very beautiful sir....so great poem....

4 1 Reply
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Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

Edinburgh / Scotland
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