"A Sailor Went to Sea" is a traditional children's
nursery rhyme,
clapping game
A clapping game (or hand game) is a type of usually cooperative (i.e., non-competitive) game which is generally played by two players and involves clapping as a rhythmic accompaniment to a singing game or reciting of a rhyme, often nursery rh ...
, and
skipping rhyme. It was initially called 'My Father Went to Sea', before becoming more widely known as 'A Sailor Went to Sea'.
Lyrics
A first verse of A Sailor Went To Sea goes as:
:A sailor went to sea, sea, sea,
:To see what he could see, see, see.
:But all that he could see, see, see,
:Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea.
While saying "sea", aquatic waves are mimed with the hand; while saying "see", the hand is brought to the eye to mime a "seeing" gesture.
Further verses typically replace "sea/see" with other words, such as "chop", "knee", "bed", or "pick", with appropriate gestural substitutions.
In popular culture
* The song was parodied in an episode of ''
VeggieTales
''VeggieTales'' is an American Christian media, computer generated musical children's animation, and book franchise created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki under Big Idea Entertainment. The series sees fruit and vegetable characters retell ...
'' as "Some Veggies Went To Sea".
* The song appeared in "Gloriana", episode 10, season 1 of the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
drama ''
The Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
''.
See also
*"
Pretty Little Dutch Girl
"Pretty Little Dutch Girl" is a children's nursery rhyme, clapping game and jump-rope rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12986.
Lyrics
The lyrics of the song vary considerably. British versions of this rhyme differ significantly, p ...
"
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
The British Library - Audio recording of A Sailor Went to Sea, 1972
Clapping games
Folk songs
Skipping rhymes
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