Child's Talk in April
A speaker wishes to become the addressed person's mate as a pair of wrens, imagining a snug nest, shared food, small quarrels and reconciliations. Their imagined spring includes an egg, turns at sitting, and chicks growing feathers and leaving; after an early-summer parting, love-time would reunite the pair to nest again.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Nature Poetry, Love Poetry · 469 words
First lines
I WISH you were a pleasant wren, / And I your small accepted mate; / How we'd look down on toilsome men! / We'd rise and go to bed at eight / Or it may be not quite so late.
Then you should see the nest I'd build, / The wondrous nest for you and me; / The outside rough, perhaps, but filled / With wool and down: ah, you should see / The cosey nest that it would be.
Genres
- Nature Poetry — Nine rhymed stanzas imagine nest-building, incubation, fledgling growth and the birds' seasonal cycle.
- Love Poetry — The speaker imagines being the addressee's accepted mate, sharing care and reconciliations, and returning when love-time comes again.
Tags
wrens · nesting · spring · courtship · parenthood · seasonal reunion
What this Textopian page supports
Child's Talk in April is listed on Textopian as a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Nature Poetry, Love Poetry
- Length: 469 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Child's Talk in April by Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph