Brownie, Brownie, Let Down Your Milk Lyrics
Someone asks Brownie to let down her milk, white as swansdown, fresh as dew and pure as snow, and promises a wreath of cowslips as a reward. The poem is six lines long.
Brownie, Brownie, Let Down Your Milk
Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk
White as swansdown and smooth as silk,
Fresh as dew and pure as snow:
For I know where the cowslips blow,
And you shall have a cowslip wreath
No sweeter scented than your breath.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/brownie-brownie-let-down-your-milk/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Animal Rhymes
- Written by
- Christina Rossetti
- Tune
- Coaxing and sweet, like singing to an animal
- Best for ages
- 2 to 6 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk | Squeeze your fists one after the other, as if milking. |
| And you shall have a cowslip wreath | Make a circle with both arms and lower it gently over a pretend head. |
What Does Brownie, Brownie, Let Down Your Milk Mean?
Cows "let down" their milk, which means it flows when they are relaxed and ready, so the speaker coaxes with sweet words and a promise. The milk is compared with four soft, clean things: it is "white as swansdown" (the soft feathers of a swan), "smooth as silk", "fresh as dew" and "pure as snow". The reward is a wreath of cowslips, small yellow spring flowers, which are said to be sweet scented. The poem says they are "no sweeter scented than your breath", which is a kind thing to say to a cow.
The words where the cowslips blow use an old meaning of blow: to bloom. Brownie is never called a cow outright, but milk that is let down makes it clear. Two pairs of lines rhyme, milk with silk and snow with blow.
History and Origin
Rossetti's Sing-Song came out in 1872. Many of its poems are about farm animals and flowers, which were familiar to English children of her time.
Learning Activities
- Milk talk: ask the child where milk comes from, and look at a picture of a cow on a farm.
- Make a flower wreath: with paper flowers, a paper strip or a pipe cleaner, make a crown and give it to a soft toy cow.
- Soft things: find things that are soft or smooth like silk and swansdown, a scarf or a cotton ball, and talk about how they feel.
- Rhyme pairs: say milk and silk, then snow and blow, and ask the child to find another word that rhymes with each.