Growing in the Vale Lyrics
Lady Daffadowndilly grows straight and thin in the valley, wearing a golden crown and a thin green gown while the spring wind is still chilly. She is a daffodil.
Growing in the Vale
Growing in the vale
By the uplands hilly,
Growing straight and frail,
Lady Daffadowndilly.
In a golden crown,
And a scant green gown
While the spring blows chilly,
Lady Daffadown,
Sweet Daffadowndilly.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/growing-in-the-vale/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Christina Rossetti
- Tune
- Light and tender, with a little bow on Lady Daffadowndilly
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
What Does Growing in the Vale Mean?
The poem never says daffodil, but the clues give her away. Her golden crown is the yellow flower, and her scant green gown, a thin, plain dress, is the green stalk and leaves. Daffadowndilly is a playful, old-fashioned form of the word daffodil. A vale is a valley and the uplands are the higher ground around it. The flower stands there "straight and frail" while "the spring blows chilly", early in the year, before the weather turns warm.
It closes on a loving name: sweet Daffadowndilly. It sounds as light as a flower nodding in the breeze.
History and Origin
This daffodil verse is in Sing-Song, published in 1872. It is a different poem from the two-line country rhyme Daffy-Down-Dilly, which also dresses the daffodil as a person in a yellow petticoat and green gown.
Learning Activities
- Plant a bulb: daffodil bulbs go into the ground in autumn and flower in spring, so plant a few in a pot in autumn and watch for them in spring.
- Draw the lady: draw a daffodil as a lady with a golden crown and a green gown.
- Say it softly: repeat the long name Daffadowndilly slowly, then quickly, and clap the syllables.
- Spot the clues: ask the child which words in the poem tell us it is a flower.