Little Drops of Water Lyrics
Little drops of water make the mighty ocean, little grains of sand make the land, and little deeds of kindness make the earth an Eden. The sixteen lines are ascribed to Julia A. F. Carney, and the poem was also printed as a song.
Little Drops of Water
Little drops of water
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean,
And the pleasant land.
Thus the little moments,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.
Thus our little errors
Lead the soul away
From the path of virtue,
Off in sin to stray.
Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
Like the heaven above.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/little-drops-of-water/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Julia A. F. Carney
- Tune
- Spoken, or sung to the children's tune in old school songbooks
- Best for ages
- 4 to 9 years
What Does Little Drops of Water Mean?
The poem has one idea and shows it four ways: small things add up to big ones. Drops make an ocean, grains make dry land, minutes make the ages of eternity, and little acts of kindness make the whole earth a paradise. The third verse gives the warning: little errors, small mistakes left alone, can lead the soul away from the path of virtue, which means goodness.
Some of the words are big. Humble means small and plain. Eternity is time that never ends. Virtue means goodness. Eden is the garden in the Bible, used to mean a beautiful, peaceful place. The poem says "like the heaven above", so it ends with a picture of an earth made good by small kind acts.
It works as a kind lesson for a child: one small kind thing counts, and so does the habit of doing it again.
History and Origin
Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories, edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie, prints the poem under the title Little Things and ascribes it to Julia A. F. Carney. The name most people know comes from its first line.
It also spread as a song. A children's songbook, Songs for the Little Ones at Home, prints it with a tune as a three-verse song. That version has "minutes" where this one has "moments", and leaves out the verse about little errors.
Learning Activities
- Fill a cup: use a spoon or dropper to add water drop by drop and count how many it takes to fill a small cup.
- Sand count: put a spoonful of sand on a plate and guess how many grains there are, then look closely at a few.
- Kindness jar: each day, drop a bead into a jar for one small kind act, and watch it fill.
- Read and say: learn the first four lines by heart, then the last four.