A Diamond or a Coal? Lyrics
The same question is asked twice. In the first verse, the answer is a diamond, because a clumsy coal is no use under summer trees. In the second, the answer is the coal, because when the waters freeze, it is the coal that matters. Eight lines by Christina Rossetti.
A Diamond or a Coal?
A diamond or a coal?
A diamond, if you please:
Who cares about a clumsy coal
Beneath the summer trees?
A diamond or a coal?
A coal, sir, if you please:
One comes to care about the coal
What time the waters freeze.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/a-diamond-or-a-coal/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Christina Rossetti
- Tune
- Clear and questioning, with a pause before each answer
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
What Does A Diamond or a Coal? Mean?
"A diamond or a coal?" opens each verse, and the second line answers it. Season is the whole secret. In summer, under the trees, who cares about a clumsy (awkward, heavy) lump of coal? A diamond, a clear gem that sparkles, is far nicer to look at. So the first voice says: "A diamond, if you please."
In the second verse the weather has turned. "What time the waters freeze" means at the time when the ponds freeze over, which is in winter. Coal can be burnt in a fire, and it keeps a house warm. A diamond cannot warm anyone. So the second voice says: "A coal, sir, if you please: one comes to care about the coal." The twist is that the prize changes with the season. In summer the pretty thing seems better, and in the cold the useful thing is worth more.
It is a good poem to talk about wanting and needing. Children can say what they would pick on a hot day, and what on a freezing one.
History and Origin
Rossetti wrote it as a pair of matching verses, each with the same first line, and the only changes are the answer and the weather. That small change is the joke. It comes from Sing-Song, and it needs no other poem to be understood.
In the years when Rossetti wrote, coal was the usual fuel for house fires in Britain, which is why a poem could rely on every reader knowing what a lump of coal was for.
Learning Activities
- Hot day, cold day: ask what each child would choose on a hot day (an ice lolly, a hat) and on a freezing day (a scarf, a warm drink), and why.
- Two answers: two children each take one verse, and the group votes on which answer is right today.
- Spot the twist: read only the first verse and ask what comes next, then read the second.
- Sparkle and warm: draw a diamond on one half of a page and a glowing fire on the other.