Here is the whole poem. Read it aloud twice. The second time, read it slowly, as if you are standing outside and pointing at the sky.
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.
— Christina Rossetti
What happens, stanza by stanza:
- Stanza 1 — three things that sail. Boats sail on rivers. Ships sail on seas. Clouds sail across the sky. Of these three, the poet says the clouds are the prettiest.
- Stanza 2 — three things that bridge. There are bridges on rivers, and they are pretty. But there is another bridge — the rainbow. It arches over the trees and joins the earth to the sky. That one, says the poet, is prettier by far.
The picture the words put in your head: First you see a little boat on a river. Then a tall ship on the open sea. Then your eyes go up, and white clouds are moving across the blue like slow ships. The poet uses the same word — sail — for all three. So the sky begins to feel like a sea, and the clouds like boats on it. That one repeated word does all the work.
Rhyme: Say the poem aloud and you will hear the rhyme at the line ends — seas and these in the first stanza, and please, trees and these in the second. All of them end in the same “-eez” sound. That is why the poem is so easy to remember.