Some of Our Favorite Backyard Swing Set Poems and Books

Do you remember your first swing set?

Maybe it was on the playground a few blocks from your house. You’d go there with your mother or father, and they’d push you on the swings, and you’d feel like you were flying.

Perhaps your first swing was something simpler - a rope attached to an old tire - hanging from an ancient oak tree in your grandfather’s backyard.

Or maybe you were fortunate enough to have your own backyard swing set, allowing you to take flight essentially whenever you wanted.

The point is that swings stay with us. They’ve been a part of childhood memories and swing sets have been around for millennia.

“Swings have long been a part of human play,” says The National Museum of Play. “Ancient cave drawings in Europe, carved figures from Crete, and ceramic vases from Greece document instances of our ancestors on swings.”

“Even before that, the very first swings may have been fashioned from plant fiber and woody vines of tropical jungles. Seafarers and hunters who learned to braid hemp into rope perhaps hung a length or two from an overhead tree branch, set a wooden plank at the other end, hopped on the seat, and began swaying to and fro in the breeze. Regardless of its origins, the idea caught on.”

It caught on to the point that we’ve immortalized the experience of swinging on a swing, not just with artwork, but with stories and poems.

One of the more well-known poems is “The Swing,” by Robert Louis Stevenson (of Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll fame).

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside—

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

There are a few illustrated versions of this poem you can purchase in book form to read to your children.

Other kids’ books that celebrate outdoor swing sets and playgrounds include:

• Swing, Otto, Swing! By David Milgrim – Part of The Adventures of Otto series of books for kindergarten-age kids, this installment finds Otto the robot trying to build a swing, so he can play with his monkey friends.

• King of the Playground, written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, illustrated by Nola Langner Malone – Kevin loves his local playground, which is ruled by Sam, the titular “king.” This sweet-natured story offers children a lesson on how to deal with bullies with words instead of fists.
• Chalk, by Bill Thomson – A wordless book in which a trio of children find a bag full of magic chalk that lets anything they draw become real.
• Motion: Push and Pull, Fast and Slow, written by Darlene R. Stille, illustrated by Sheree Boyd – This short science book uses swing sets to explain concepts like movement, force and inertia to younger readers.

Backyard swing sets offer a great way to have fun and make memories. If you’re interested in installing one in your yard, Swingset & Toy Warehouse can help.

Visit us online at one of our four New Jersey locations, (Flemington, Upper Saddle River, Freehold or East Hanover) and we can help you find an outdoor play set that’s right for your family. Who knows? It may one day inspire your kid to write a book of their own.