Q1.
Let us Recite — The Swing. Read the poem aloud and enjoy it.
Answer
Here is the whole poem. Read it aloud twice. The second time, swing your hand forward on the “up” lines and back on the “down” lines.
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,
Rivers 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!
— Robert Louis Stevenson
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,
Rivers 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!
— Robert Louis Stevenson
What each stanza says:
- Stanza 1. The poet asks, “Do you like going up in a swing?” Then he gives his own answer. Going up into the blue air on a swing is the nicest thing any child can do.
- Stanza 2. At the top of the swing he goes higher than the garden wall. From up there he can see very far. He sees rivers, trees and cattle, spread over the whole countryside.
- Stanza 3. As the swing comes down, he looks down at the green garden and the brown roof of the house. Then the swing carries him up once more, and down again.
The rhyme scheme — how the lines are paired: In each stanza the first line rhymes with the third, and the second line rhymes with the fourth. We can write this pattern as a b a b.
Rhyme is about sound, not spelling. Blue and do are spelt quite differently, but both end with the sound “oo”.
| Stanza | Lines 1 and 3 | Lines 2 and 4 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | swing — thing | blue — do |
| 2 | wall — all | wide — countryside |
| 3 | green — again (these two only nearly match) | brown — down |
How to say it aloud:
- Say the long first line in one breath, then take a small breath at the comma.
- Line 1 of stanza 1 is a question. Let your voice go up at “so blue?”
- Say “Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing” in a happy, excited voice.
- In stanza 2, say “Rivers and trees and cattle and all” slowly. Name each thing clearly, as if you can really see it.
- Say every “Up” a little louder and a little higher. Say every “down” lower and softer.
- The last line ends with ‘!’. Finish it with a big, happy push, and then stop.
Did you notice? The words “up in the air” come four times in this short poem. Saying them again and again makes us feel the swing going up, again and again.
Look at the picture on page 103: A boy in a red shirt sits on a wooden swing tied with yellow ropes to a big tree branch. He is swinging out over a low stone wall. On the other side of the wall a girl stands beside her wheelchair, smiling up at him. Behind them you can see a red tiled roof, small houses, green fields and cows. A bee and a butterfly fly near the flowers. The picture shows exactly what the poem describes — a child high up, with the countryside spread out below.