A Sailor Went to Sea

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"A Sailor Went to Sea" is a traditional children's nursery rhyme, clapping game, and skipping rhyme. It was initially called 'My Father Went to Sea', before becoming more widely known as 'A Sailor Went to Sea'. [1]

Contents

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", "toes", with appropriate gestural substitutions. [2]

See also

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References

  1. The British Library. "Clapping games - A sailor went to sea, sea, sea". Playtimes. The British Library. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
  2. "A Sailor went to Sea (2010)". British Library Collection Items. British Library. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  3. VeggieTales: Some Veggies Went To Sea , retrieved 16 January 2023

Further reading