# Sing-Song: There Is But One May in the Year - 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, Music, Animals - Topics: stitch, crown, days, short, night, summer - Length: 360 words, about 3 min - Original: - Page: - Open in Sprouts: There is but one May in the year, And sometimes May is wet and cold; There is but one May in the year Before the year grows old. ## Yet though it be the chilliest May Yet though it be the chilliest May, With least of sun and most of showers, Its wind and dew, its night and day, Bring up the flowers. ## The summer nights are short The summer nights are short Where northern days are long: For hours and hours lark after lark Trills out his song. ## The summer days are short The summer days are short Where southern nights are long: Yet short the night when nightingales Trill out their song. ## The days are clear The days are clear, Day after day, When April’s here, That leads to May, And June Must follow soon: Stay, June, stay!— If only we could stop the moon And June! ## Twist me a crown of wind-flowers Twist me a crown of wind-flowers; That I may fly away To hear the singers at their song, And players at their play. Put on your crown of wind-flowers But whither would you go? Beyond the surging of the sea And the storms that blow. Alas! your crown of wind-flowers Can never make you fly: I twist them in a crown to-day, And to-night they die. ## Brown and furry Brown and furry Caterpillar in a hurry, Take your walk To the shady leaf, or stalk, Or what not, Which may be the chosen spot. No toad spy you, Hovering bird of prey pass by you Spin and die, To live again a butterfly. ## A toadstool comes up in a night,— A toadstool comes up in a night,— Learn the lesson, little folk:— An oak grows on a hundred years, But then it is an oak. ## A pocket handkerchief to hem— A pocket handkerchief to hem— On dear, oh dear, oh dear! How many stitches it will take Before it’s done, I fear. ## Yet set a stitch and then a stitch Yet set a stitch and then a stitch, And stitch and stitch away, Till stitch by stitch the hem is done— And after work is play! ## Picture credits - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain () - Arthur Hughes, Public domain ()