✦ A Classic Poem ✦
Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you. But when the leaves hang trembling, the wind is passing through. Eight short lines about something we can feel but never see.
Read aloud by Storyland Classics ✦ 56 seconds ✦ Watch on YouTube
✦ The Poem ✦
by Christina Rossetti, from Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872). Public domain.
Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling, The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I: But when the trees bow down their heads, The wind is passing by.
✦ About the Poem ✦
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.
This is one of the most famous short poems in English. In just eight lines it teaches a big idea: we know the wind is there, even though we can never see it, because we can see what it does. Notice how the second verse swaps “I nor you” to “you nor I,” like the wind changing direction.
✦ Talk About It ✦