The poem begins with a small waking-up moment and lets the sounds of words carry the speaker along. "Going to sea in a tub" slips into "going to see / a king be a king," and then into "singing in the garden." Each phrase echoes the one before, so the thought drifts the way a mind does in the first minutes of the day, half dreaming, half awake. The images are playful and a bit absurd: a tub on the ocean, a king simply being kingly.
Underneath the wordplay, the ending lands on something plain and warm: "longing to see my wife." After all the wandering, the speaker's real wish comes into focus. The mood is light, gently humorous and affectionate, with a touch of yearning. The short lines and loose, drifting grammar make it feel unhurried, like a thought spoken aloud before the day has properly started. It suggests that even in a silly, half-asleep mood, the heart knows what it wants.