Auntie's Skirts Lyrics
Whenever Auntie moves, her dresses make a curious sound. They trail behind her up the floor and trundle after through the door, as if they were a small procession of their own. Four lines from A Child's Garden of Verses.
Auntie's Skirts
Whenever Auntie moves around,
Her dresses make a curious sound,
They trail behind her up the floor,
And trundle after through the door.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/aunties-skirts/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Tune
- Light and swishy, like the sound the poem describes
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Whenever Auntie moves around | Walk slowly in a circle with a scarf or blanket held behind you. |
| They trail behind her up the floor | Let the scarf drag along the floor as you walk. |
| And trundle after through the door | Walk through a doorway, then turn and look at the scarf following you. |
What Does Auntie's Skirts Mean?
The poem looks at Auntie from a child's height. A grown woman in a long dress hardly notices the skirts, but a small child sitting on the floor sees them move like something alive. Curious here means odd and interesting, and the sound is the rustle of cloth. The dresses trail behind her, meaning they drag along the floor after her, and they trundle, which means to roll or move along slowly.
The last line makes a little joke. The skirts follow Auntie through the door just as a puppy or a small child might. The poem never says that Auntie looks back.
The four lines rhyme in pairs: around with sound, and floor with door. A child can easily finish the second line of each pair.
History and Origin
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 to 1894) was a Scottish writer best known for Treasure Island (1883). A Child's Garden of Verses, his book of poems for children, was published in 1885.
This is one of its shortest poems. At the time he wrote it, women commonly wore long skirts that reached the floor, so a child really would have seen an aunt's dresses trailing after her through a house.
Learning Activities
- Skirt walk: let a child walk with a long scarf or blanket trailing behind and listen to the sound it makes.
- Listen to cloth: rub silk, cotton and wool between the fingers and compare the sounds.
- Follow the skirts: draw a long dress with a tiny child watching it from the floor.
- Trundle words: find other things that trundle, such as a toy cart or a wheelbarrow.