Oh, No! Lyrics
Two what-ifs, both topsy-turvy. If bluebirds bloomed like flowers and could not sing, the daisies would not know when to come up. If flowers had wings, birds, blossoms and butterflies would all stay up in the sky, and the children below would cry.
Oh, No!
If blue-birds bloomed like flowers in a row,
And never could make a sound,
How would the daisies and violets know
When to come out of the ground!
They would wait and wait the seasons round;
Never a flower could on earth be found.
And what would birds and butterflies do
If the flowers had wings to fly?
Why, birds and blossoms, and butterflies too,
Would stay far up in the sky;
And then the people would droop and sigh,
And all the children on earth would cry.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/oh-no/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Mary Mapes Dodge
- Tune
- Wondering and a little dramatic, with a sigh before the last two lines
- Best for ages
- 4 to 8 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| If the flowers had wings to fly? | Flutter your fingers like petals and lift your hands into the air. |
| And then the people would droop and sigh, | Let your shoulders and head droop and give a big sigh. |
What Does Oh, No! Mean?
The poem plays with a question: what if things swapped jobs? In the first six lines bluebirds are planted like flowers in a row and cannot make a sound. Then how would the daisies and violets know when to come out of the ground? The poem treats birdsong as the signal for spring, and without it the flowers would wait and wait the seasons round.
The last six lines flip it: if flowers had wings, birds and blossoms, and butterflies too, would stay far up in the sky. Then the people below would droop, which means hang their heads, and sigh, and the children would cry. The title Oh, No! is the reader's own answer to both pictures. Nothing in the poem is scary, and the quiet moral is that the world works because each thing stays in its place. Rhymes to listen for are sound, ground, round and found in the first half, and fly, sky, sigh and cry in the second.
History and Origin
This poem is from the same collection by Mary Mapes Dodge, copyrighted in 1874. The book's own pages list her novel Hans Brinker, and the verses are addressed to the children.
Learning Activities
- Swap game: ask the child to invent a topsy-turvy idea, such as fish that walk or trees that swim, and say what would go wrong.
- Spring signs: listen for birds in early spring and notice which flowers are out at the same time.
- Rhyme hunt: list the four words that rhyme in each verse and add one more of your own.
- Winged flowers: draw a flower with wings and a bird with petals, then decide which picture is sillier.