✦ A Classic Poem ✦

What Is Pink?

A poem by Christina Rossetti, from Sing-Song, 1872

What is pink? A rose is pink by the fountain’s brink. Christina Rossetti’s much-loved color poem asks a question for every color, and ends with a smile.

Watch the Read-Aloud Read the Poem

Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 1 min 31 sec ✦ Watch on YouTube

✦ The Poem ✦

What Is Pink?

by Christina Rossetti, from Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872). Public domain.

What is pink? a rose is pink By the fountain’s brink. What is red? a poppy’s red In its barley bed. What is blue? the sky is blue Where the clouds float thro’. What is white? a swan is white Sailing in the light. What is yellow? pears are yellow, Rich and ripe and mellow. What is green? the grass is green, With small flowers between. What is violet? clouds are violet In the summer twilight. What is orange? Why, an orange, Just an orange!

✦ About the Poem ✦

A Poem of Colors

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) was one of the great English poets of the 1800s. Her book Sing-Song, published in 1872, is a collection of short, simple verses for very young children, and many of its poems are still learned by heart today.

“What Is Pink?” is one of the best poems for teaching colors, because each answer is a picture from nature. The surprise comes at the very end, when Rossetti runs out of rhymes for “orange,” since almost nothing rhymes with it, and simply answers: an orange!

✦ Talk About It ✦

Questions to Share

What is pink in the poem? What is blue?
Why do you think the last answer is “just an orange”?
Make your own verse: What is brown?

✦ Keep Reading ✦

More Poems to Enjoy

The Rainbow

A poem by Christina Rossetti, from Sing-Song, 1872

Who Has Seen the Wind?

A poem by Christina Rossetti, from Sing-Song, 1872

All Poems

Browse every poem in the Storyland Classics library.