Row Row Row Your Boat

Row Row Row Your Boat Lyrics. One of the simplest, most widely taught songs in the English-speaking world, built to be sung as a round — with two, three or even four groups starting the same tune a line apart, so the voices overlap and echo like ripples spreading across water. Its exact origin is genuinely unclear: printed versions began circulating in American songbooks in the second half of the 1800s, but no single confirmed first publication has ever been settled on by historians. What is certain is how well its tiny vocabulary and constant repetition work for the very youngest singers — and how its closing line, “life is but a dream,” slips a surprisingly thoughtful idea into an otherwise playful little song. Here you will find the lyrics, meaning, and chords.