Burs Lyrics
Two children find prickly burs that stick together and list what they could build with them: a basket, a mat, a tea-board, a hat, a cottage and even a pancake.
Burs
Dear me!
What shall it be?
Such sticky affairs
Did ever you see?
Let's make a basket,
Let's make a mat,
Let's make a tea-board,
Let's make a hat;
Let's make a cottage,
Windows and doors;
You do the roof,
And I'll do the floors.
Let's make a pancake, -
Stick 'em together;
See how they fasten
Close to each other!
Tied to one's heel
They would answer for spurs;
Ah, how we love 'em,
These comical burs!
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/burs/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Mary Mapes Dodge
- Tune
- Quick and excited, a list that tumbles out
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| Tied to one's heel | Tap your heel on the floor. |
| You do the roof | Make a roof over your head with both hands. |
| See how they fasten Close to each other! | Press your hands together and then try to pull them apart. |
What Does Burs Mean?
A bur is the prickly, hooked seed case of some plants, which clings to clothes and fur. Children found them in the fields and learned that they stick together as well. The poem imagines a game of collecting them and pressing them into shapes. A tea-board is a tea tray. The "cottage" has "windows and doors", and the speaker offers a job each: "you do the roof, and I'll do the floors".
The end of the poem is a joke about spurs, small pointed pieces, often a spiked wheel, worn on the heels of a rider's boots. Burs tied to a heel "would answer for spurs", meaning they would do the job of spurs. The real-life tale is a famous one: a Swiss engineer, George de Mestral, noticed in 1941 how burdock burs stuck to his clothes and his dog's fur, and that led to the hook-and-loop fastener known as Velcro.
History and Origin
The poem is in Mary Mapes Dodge's Rhymes and Jingles (1874). The title page calls her the author of Hans Brinker, her best-known novel. The verse is a list poem: six lines begin by proposing something to build, which gives it the pace of children trying one idea after another.
Learning Activities
- Bur art: if you find burs on a walk, press them gently onto an old woolly jumper to make a shape, and then remove every one afterwards.
- Make list: take turns finishing the sentence "We could make a..." with something silly.
- Sticky things: hunt for other things that stick, such as a hook-and-loop strap, and talk about why they cling.
- Pancake joke: ask why you could not eat a pancake made of burs.