# Sing-Song: If All Were Rain and Never Sun - Source: Sing-Song (sing-song.gutenberg.org), Public domain, Christina Rossetti, pictures by Arthur Hughes, 1872, via Project Gutenberg - Reading level: Ages 4 to 6 - Subjects: Poems, Nature, Music - Topics: brownie, cluck, white, woolly, never, rain - Length: 257 words, about 2 min - Original: - Page: - Open in Sprouts: If all were rain and never sun, No bow could span the hill; If all were sun and never rain, There’d be no rainbow still. ## O wind, where have you been O wind, where have you been, That you blow so sweet? Among the violets Which blossom at your feet. ## The honeysuckle waits The honeysuckle waits For Summer and for heat. But violets in the chilly Spring Make the turf so sweet. ## Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk White as swansdown and smooth as silk, Fresh as dew and pure as snow: For I know where the cowslips blow, And you shall have a cowslip wreath No sweeter scented than your breath. ## On the grassy banks On the grassy banks Lambkins at their pranks; Woolly sisters, woolly brothers Jumping off their feet While their woolly mothers Watch by them and bleat. ## Rushes in a watery place Rushes in a watery place, And reeds in a hollow; A soaring skylark in the sky, A darting swallow; And where pale blossom used to hang Ripe fruit to follow. ## Minnie and Mattie Minnie and Mattie And fat little May, Out in the country, Spending a day. ## Such a bright day Such a bright day, With the sun glowing, And the trees half in leaf, And the grass growing. ## Pinky white pigling Pinky white pigling Squeals through his snout, Woolly white lambkin Frisks all about. ## Cluck! cluck! the nursing hen Cluck! cluck! the nursing hen Summons her folk,— Ducklings all downy soft Yellow as yolk. ## Picture credits - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain ()