Cover of Lengthening Days

Lengthening Days

Traditional

ages 0 to 2nursery rhymesread aloudabout 5 seconds aloud

A short seasonal couplet noting that as the days stretch out, the storms grow fiercer. It's more observation than performance piece, a quick nod to spring weather rather than a rhyme to act out.

From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.

As the days grow longer
The storms grow stronger.

About this rhyme

This couplet is recorded in Hone's Table Book, 1827. · Related weather sayings about lengthening days and worsening cold/storms are attested as far back as 1631.

Just two lines, and it's a saying rather than a story: an old bit of weather lore claiming that spring's lengthening days often bring rougher weather, not calmer. This wording was printed in 1827, and versions of the saying go back much further still. Say it plainly, the way you'd say any saying, rather than performing it.

Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition

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