Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is an English language nursery rhyme, and a popular children's song, often sung as a round. About this sound Play (help·info) It can also be an 'action' nursery rhyme where singers sit opposite one another and 'row' forwards and backwards with joined hands. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19236.br br Lyricsbr The most common modern version is:br br Row, row, row your boat,br Gently down the stream.br Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,br Life is but a dreambr br Originsbr br Children play "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" at a kindergartenbr It has been suggested that the song may have originally arisen out of American minstrelsy.The earliest printing of the song is from 1852, when the lyrics were published with similar lyrics to those used today, but with a very different tune. It was reprinted again two years later with the same lyrics and another tune. The modern tune was first recorded with the lyrics in 1881, mentioning Eliphalet Oram Lyte in The Franklin Square Song Collection but not making it clear whether he was the composer or adapterbr br Additional or alternate versesbr People often add additional verses, a form of children's street culture, with the intent of either extending the song or (especially in the case of more irreverent versions) to make it funny, parodying it, or substituting another sensibility for the perceived innocent one of the original. Versions include:br br Row, row, row your boat,br Gently down the stream.br If you see an alligator,br Don't forget to scream.br Row, row, row your boat,br Gently down the stream.