Curly Locks Lyrics
Strawberries, sugar and cream, a soft cushion, and no chores at all. Curly Locks is a sweet old promise of a life of ease, written in old-fashioned language.
Curly Locks
Curly-locks, Curly-locks, wilt thou be mine?
Thou shalt not wash the dishes, nor yet feed the swine;
But sit on a cushion, and sew a fine seam
And feed upon strawberries, sugar, and cream.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/curly-locks/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Traditional
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
What Does Curly Locks Mean?
Someone is asking Curly Locks, a girl with curly hair, to be theirs. In return they promise she will never have to wash the dishes or feed the swine (pigs). Instead she can sit on a cushion, sew fine stitches and eat strawberries with sugar and cream.
The old words may need a little explaining: wilt thou be mine means "will you be mine", and thou shalt means "you shall". To an adult ear it sounds like a proposal. Most children simply hear a list of treats.
History and Origin
Curly Locks is in Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes of England and in almost every large Mother Goose collection since. Sewing a fine seam, very small neat stitches, was once a skill every girl was expected to learn, so the promise is really about comfort: sewing as a pleasure rather than work.
Learning Activities
- Hair brushing: say the rhyme slowly while brushing or braiding hair. It fits the rhythm of the brush.
- Strawberry treat: share a bowl of strawberries with a little cream, the Curly Locks way.
- Old words: make a list of the old-fashioned words in the rhyme and swap them for modern ones.