The lyrics have often been used as a metaphor for life's difficult choices, and many see the boat as referring to one's self or a group with which one identifies.[2] Rowing is a skillful, if tedious, practice that takes perfection but also directs the vessel.[3] When sung as a group, the act of rowing becomes a unifier, as oars must be in sync in a rowboat. The idea that man travels along a certain stream suggests boundaries in the path of choices and in free will.[4] The third line recommends that challenges should be greeted in stride while open to joy with a smile.[5] The final line, "life is but a dream", is perhaps the most meaningful. With a religious point of view, life and the physical plane may be regarded as having equivalent value as that of a dream, such that troubles are seen in the context of a lesser reality once one has awakened.[6] Conversely, the line can just as equally convey nihilist sentiments on the meaninglessness of man's actions.
Some have questioned the song's implied necessity to row one's boat downstream. This may in fact be a commentary on the paradoxical nature of time's arrow with respect to man's free will in a universe of materialistic causality.[7]
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Shake your windows and rattle your walls.
This is a particularly grotesque example of the kind of original synthesis that the no-original-research policy is intended to prevent. A cursory glance at the cited sources suggest that they all use "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as a metaphor to discuss something else; none go so far as to try to interpret the song.
Wikipedia itself is a nice metaphor for the human race, isn't it? It's so marvelous as a whole, even while so many parts of it are rotten to the core.
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He lives in cyberspace and wants to destroy the network system.
One time, a couple friends of mine changed Rutherford B. Hays' middle initial to stand for 'Badass' to see how long it would take to get reverted. It took a surprising 15 minutes.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/ukealii50/kylo.jpg - Thanks uke!
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/829/07kyloforce.png - Thanks Diyosa!