The Wind Has Such a Rainy Sound Lyrics
On a windy, rainy day a child listens to the wind, the sea and the apples dropping in the orchard, and asks one question twice: will the ships go down? The question is left hanging. Christina Rossetti's book of 1872 holds it.
The Wind Has Such a Rainy Sound
The wind has such a rainy sound
Moaning through the town,
The sea has such a windy sound,
Will the ships go down?
The apples in the orchard
Tumble from their tree.
Oh, will the ships go down, go down,
In the windy sea?
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-wind-has-such-a-rainy-sound/
- Type
- Poems for Children
- Written by
- Christina Rossetti
- Tune
- Low and slow, like a voice listening, the question lines rising at the end
- Best for ages
- 4 to 8 years
What Does The Wind Has Such a Rainy Sound Mean?
The poem is about listening. The wind "has such a rainy sound", moaning through the town, and the sea "has such a windy sound". Each sound seems to borrow from the other, so the storm is all one noise. The second verse moves to an orchard where "the apples tumble from their tree" in the wind.
The child asks about the ships at sea: "Will the ships go down?" Here, "go down" means sink. The question comes twice, and the second time it is longer: "Oh, will the ships go down, go down, in the windy sea?" The poem never says that any ship is lost, and it offers no answer. It stays with a worry, the way a child will on a loud night, and it ends with that wondering.
For a parent this can start a calm talk about storms: that ships are built for rough weather, and that wondering about it is a way to be curious. The poem does not need any more than that.
History and Origin
This poem appears in Sing-Song (1872) by Christina Rossetti, a book for the nursery whose verses range from games to quiet moods, and this one is among its quietest.
The poem is in two verses of four lines. The second and fourth lines of the first verse end in "town" and "down", which rhyme.
Learning Activities
- Storm sounds: make wind and rain sounds together with voices, rubbing hands and soft finger taps.
- Listen to the weather: on a windy day, stop for a minute and ask what the wind sounds like to each child.
- Apples in the orchard: drop soft pom-poms into a basket one by one on the apples line.
- Talk it over: ask what ships need to be safe at sea, and what the harbour is for.