What Does Little Birdie Say? Lyrics
At dawn a little bird asks to fly, and the answer is to wait until the wings are stronger. Then the same question is asked of a baby in bed, with the same answer. It is a sixteen-line bedtime-and-morning poem, credited to Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
What Does Little Birdie Say?
What does little birdie say,
In her nest at peep of day?
"Let me fly," says little birdie,
"Mother, let me fly away."
Birdie, rest a little longer,
Till the little wings are stronger.
So she rests a little longer,
Then she flies away.
What does little baby say,
In her bed at peep of day?
Baby says, like little birdie,
"Let me rise and fly away."
Baby, sleep a little longer,
Till the little limbs are stronger.
If she sleeps a little longer,
Baby, too, shall fly away.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/what-does-little-birdie-say/
- Type
- Poems for Children, Lullabies
- Written by
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Tune
- Soft and rocking, the questions rising and the answers falling
- Best for ages
- 0 to 6 years
What Does What Does Little Birdie Say? Mean?
The poem has two matching halves. In the first, a little bird sits "in her nest at peep of day". Peep of day is dawn, the first peep of daylight. The bird says "Let me fly" and asks mother to let her fly away. The answer is kind: rest a little longer, "till the little wings are stronger". So she rests, and then she flies away.
The second half copies the first, with a baby in a bed. The baby says, like the bird, "Let me rise and fly away", and the answer is the same: sleep a little longer, "till the little limbs are stronger". The wish to fly is a wish to grow. The poem promises that the baby, too, will fly away when ready. That is why it suits a tired, wriggling child at daybreak, since the lesson is to rest first and grow strong.
The repeated lines, "a little longer" and "at peep of day", give the verse the sound of a lullaby.
History and Origin
The words come from Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories, a reader edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie, which credits the poem to Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 to 1892), the English poet laureate. Many of Tennyson's lyrics were set to music.
In Tennyson's longer poem Sea Dreams, these lines are the cradle song. All sixteen lines are given here, in four verses. The second verse answers the first, and the fourth answers the third, so the poem works as two question-and-answer pairs.
Learning Activities
- Question and answer: one voice asks 'What does little birdie say?' and the group answers 'Let me fly'.
- Wings that grow: flap your arms slowly on the 'wings' lines, small at first and wider at the end.
- Dawn picture: draw a nest at sunrise, with a bird looking out over its edge.
- Wait a little longer: practise resting for ten slow breaths and talk about how patience helps things grow.