A Frisky Lamb Lyrics
A lamb and a child, both frisky, play pranks together in a cowslip meadow. The sky is blue, the air is mild, the fields are full of sun and the lanes are only half in shadow. Eight lines in one breath.
A Frisky Lamb
A frisky lamb
And a frisky child
Playing their pranks
In a cowslip meadow:
The sky all blue
And the air all mild
And the fields all sun
And the lanes half shadow.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/a-frisky-lamb/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Animal Rhymes
- Written by
- Christina Rossetti
- Tune
- Skipping and light, one picture after another
- Best for ages
- 2 to 6 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| A frisky lamb | Hop twice on the spot, both feet together. |
| Playing their pranks | Skip in a small circle. |
| The sky all blue | Sweep one arm up and across the sky. |
What Does A Frisky Lamb Mean?
The poem is a single sentence with no main verb. It names things one after another, as if a child were pointing: a frisky lamb, a frisky child, a meadow, a blue sky, mild air, sunny fields, shady lanes. Frisky means full of play and bounce, and the same word is given to the lamb and the child, so the two are friends in the same game. Pranks are playful tricks and capers. A cowslip is a yellow wildflower of spring meadows that hangs its small bells in a cluster. Mild air is gentle and not cold.
The last four lines are about the weather. The sky is all blue, the air all mild, the fields "all sun" and the lanes "half shadow". The first three use all for a day of complete brightness; the fourth lets a little shade in, because a lane with trees along it has both. It is a spring picture with nothing sad and nothing to puzzle over.
Because there is no main verb, the poem has no plot to follow, only things to see. That makes it a good one for naming what is in the room or garden, one item at a time.
History and Origin
The poem comes from Rossetti's Sing-Song of 1872, where a number of short poems read like a single picture. Her lines here are very short, and the rhymes fall in the second half: child with mild, and meadow with shadow. Said aloud, both pairs do rhyme.
Lambs have long belonged to nursery verse, and this one is among the least serious of them.
Learning Activities
- Spring walk: in spring, find a field or a picture of a field and name everything you see in it, one word per item.
- Hop like a lamb: hop and skip across the room, then stop on the line 'the lanes half shadow'.
- Light and shade: stand in a sunny spot and a shady one and say which line fits each.
- Cowslip picture: draw a cluster of small yellow bells on one stalk.