The poem describes a child's bedtime routine and journey to sleep. It is told in four stanzas with an AABB rhyme scheme. Each stanza has four lines. The child gets ready for bed with help from their nurse, saying goodnight to friends before embarking on an imaginary sea voyage while in bed. Though they sail away into darkness, the child awakens safely back in their bedroom each morning.

1. by Robert Louis Stevenson

2. 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.

3. METRE
HOW MANY STANZAS DOES THE POEM HAVE?
FOUR
HOW MANY LINES DOES EACH STANZA HAVE?
FOUR

4. PRONUNCIATION
FIND RHYMING WORDS IN THE POEM. WRITE THE PAIRS
1. boat - coat 5. take – cake
2. embark - dark 6. do – two
3. say - away 7. steer – pier
4. shore – more 8. last - fast
CAN YOU FIND A PATTERN IN THE RHYME?
a–b–a-b

5. VOCABULARY
GUESSING MEANING FROM CONTEXT
1. to embark a. person who navigates ships.
2. to gird b. to guide the course of a boat, vehicle, etc.
3. sailor c. to get on a boat, a ship or an airplane.
4. shore d. careful, judicious.
5. to shut e. to equip, to prepare for action.
6. prudent f. thin, broad piece.
7. slice g. ship, boat
8. to steer h. to close.
9. pier i. the land on or near a lake, sea, etc.
10. vessel j. platform over water used to access
ships, boats, etc.
1c – 2e – 3a – 4i – 5h – 6d – 7f – 8b – 9j – 10g

6. VOCABULARY
FIND WORDS RELATED TO THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES
1. PEOPLE
2. SAILING
3. SENSES
4. MEANS OFTRANSPORT
1. nurse, sailor, friends
2. embark, on board, shore, sail away, steer, pier
3. eyes, see, hear
4. boat, vessel
CAN YOU FIND ANY OTHER CATEGORIES IN THE POEM?

7. CREATIVE PROJECTS
IN GROUPS OF FOUR:
1. practise reciting your favourite stanza of the poem
2. perform or dramatise the poem to the rest of the class
INDIVIDUALLY: CHOOSE 1, 2, 3 or 4
1. make a drawing related to the poem (it can be a scene, a
place, a feeling…), or
2. make a PowerPoint presentation of the poem, or
3. make your own version of the poem changing at least 10
words, or
4. write something about the poem (why you liked it or not, what
you like best and why…)