After the Winter Lyrics
The first warm days arrive and the poem greets everything that comes with them: birds, chickens, tadpoles, crickets and fireflies, ant-hills, daisies, cherries, swallows and cornfields. Every verse ends with a shout of hurrah.
After the Winter
The summer is coming - hurrah!
Old winter has gone for good.
The summer is coming - hurrah! hurrah!
The birdies are in the wood.
The chickens are coming - hurrah!
Hear how the old hen clucks:
The chickens are coming - hurrah! hurrah!
And the queer little turkeys and ducks.
The tad-poles are coming - hurrah!
With their comical, wriggling tails:
The tad-poles are coming - hurrah! hurrah!
Like little mites of whales.
The crickets are coming - hurrah!
And katydids always so funny:
And fire-flies too - hurrah! hurrah!
And bumble-bees laden with honey.
The ant-hills are coming - hurrah!
What fun to see them rise:
The ant-hills are coming - hurrah! hurrah!
They're growing before our eyes.
The daisies are coming - hurrah!
We'll weave them in many a chain:
The daisies are coming - hurrah! hurrah!
The daisies are coming again!
The cherries are coming - hurrah!
And apples and peaches and plums:
The fruit is a-coming - hurrah! hurrah!
We'll feast on it when it comes.
The swallows are coming - hurrah!
There'll be lots of birds in the sky;
The swallows are coming - hurrah! hurrah!
We'll whoop at them as they fly.
The corn-fields are coming - hurrah!
So green and waving and high:
The corn-fields are coming - hurrah! hurrah!
We'll hide in them by-and-by.
The summer is coming - hurrah!
We can bathe and swim and dive:
The summer is coming - hurrah! hurrah!
Oh! it's jolly to be alive!
It's jolly to live - hurrah!
Let us all be good and glad:
It's the grandest world - hurrah! hurrah!
That ever we children have had.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/after-the-winter/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Mary Mapes Dodge
- Tune
- Marching and cheerful, with a big shout on every 'hurrah'
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| The summer is coming - hurrah! | Raise both arms and cheer. |
| The daisies are coming - hurrah! | Pretend to thread a daisy chain, then hold it up. |
| We can bathe and swim and dive | Make swimming arms, then a little dive of the hands. |
What Does After the Winter Mean?
This is a list poem with a cheer in the middle of it. Most verses name one sign of warm weather, repeat it with an extra hurrah!, and then add a small, funny detail: the tadpoles' "comical, wriggling tails" look "like little mites of whales", the old hen clucks, and the ant-hills are "growing before our eyes". Katydids are green insects that call in the evening, and fire-flies are the beetles that glow in the dark.
It runs in an order a child can follow, from first warmth to full summer, and ends on a cheer: "It's the grandest world". Because the same line is said twice with a longer shout the second time, children can learn the pattern quickly.
History and Origin
Mary Mapes Dodge published Rhymes and Jingles in 1874, and this seasonal poem is one of its verses. The poem treats summer as something to celebrate with the whole body.
Learning Activities
- Spring walk: go outside and find three things the poem names, such as a daisy, an ant-hill or a bird, and cheer for each.
- Make a hurrah list: let the child say what they are looking forward to this season, and add it to the poem in the same pattern.
- Daisy chain: thread daisies together by splitting the stems, and wear the chain while you read.
- Tadpole watch: if there is a pond nearby, look for tadpoles in spring and talk about how they change.