Little Brown Baby: Lovely Rhyming Poem for Kids

A short and sweet, beautifully illustrated poem by Paul Laurence, Little Brown Baby is a special poem depicting a father and child's bond. When you read this poem, you dive deep into the beauty and affectionate bond between father and child, which makes the poem fun, sweet and amazing to read again and again. Kids will fall in love with the verse.

In this article, we will read Little Brown Baby poem summary and lyrics. It is an English poem for kids. We will discuss the theme and history of the poem as well.

Little Brown Baby

About the Brown Poem

'Little Brown Baby' is a beautiful poem written by Paul Laurence Dunbar in Black English dialect. Black English is also known as African American English. Dunbar was a North American poet, novelist, and playwright who wrote simple English poems for young boys. The poet started his writing journey when he was just 16 years old, writing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Little Brown Baby is a beautifully decorated poem made with pure love and affection for the children, which kids will love to repeat again and again.

Depicts the Poet and Little Brown Baby

History of Brown Baby Poem

The poem, the little brown baby is an inspirational work of Paul Laurence Dunbar, written in the period of blackface minstrelsy, also known as Black English. The poem is a treasure of the love of the father for his child who is an African American striving to write according to the time. The author of several poems, essays, and short stories, Dunbar is known for his Dialect poems.

Little Brown Baby Poem Lyrics

- By Paul Laurence Dunbar

Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes,

Come to yo' pappy an' set on his knee.

What you been doin', suh — makin' san' pies?

Look at dat bib — you's es du'ty ez me.

Look at dat mouf — dat's merlasses, I bet;

Come hyeah, Maria, an' wipe off his han's.

Bees gwine to ketch you an' eat you up yit,

Bein' so sticky an sweet — goodness lan's!

Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes,

Who's pappy's darlin' an' who's pappy's chile?

Who is it all de day nevah once tries

Fu' to be cross, er once loses dat smile?

Whah did you git dem teef? My, you's a scamp!

Whah did dat dimple come f'om in yo' chin?

Pappy do' know you — I b'lieves you's a tramp;

Mammy, dis hyeah's some ol' straggler got in!

Let's th'ow him outen de do' in de san',

We do' want stragglers a-layin' 'roun' hyeah;

Let's gin him 'way to de big buggah-man;

I know he's hidin' erroun' hyeah right neah.

Buggah-man, buggah-man, come in de do',

Hyeah's a bad boy you kin have fu' to eat.

Mammy an' pappy do' want him no mo',

Swaller him down f'om his haid to his feet!

Dah, now, I t'ought dat you'd hug me up close.

Go back, ol' buggah, you sha'n't have dis boy.

He ain't no tramp, ner no straggler, of co'se;

He's pappy's pa'dner an' play-mate an' joy.

Come to you' pallet now — go to yo' res';

Wisht you could allus know ease an' cleah skies;

Wisht you could stay jes' a chile on my breas'—

Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes!

Brown Baby

Little Brown Baby Poem Analysis 

Little Brown Baby is a rhyming poem for kids, written by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The poem amazingly depicts the lovely bond between father and child. The brown poem is popular for Dunbar's use of slang in writing, which makes it more appealing.

In the first stanza, a father talks with her little brown baby, who has sparkling eyes. Father calls the child to sit on his knees and instructs the mother to wipe the child's mouth because the child has eaten some sugary stuff, which is stuck on his face. The father tells the child to clean his face or it will be eaten by bees for being so sweet.

Essentially, the brown poem is about an adorable father-son sweet bond at home. Little brown baby is fun to sing and an easy poem for kids, made up of 4 stanzas which makes it a  rhyming poem for kids. The poem is very special and sweet to touch kids' hearts. It continues with the father who jokes about the child and his dimples, chin, and teeth.

 "What did say dimple come from in your chin"?

The father continues to joke and asks the offspring for a hug. It is a stunning poem from the late 19th century.

The Literary Meaning of the Poem

The speaker of the rhyming poem for kids is “little brown”, Paul Laurence Dunbar is an African American father who comes from a poor working-class structure and shares his deep emotions and feelings about what it means to represent himself as a father, husband, brother, and son. We find inspiration in Dunbar's poem, a sense of not only courage but also integrity. Read this beautiful poem out loud, although it may be difficult to read, the emotions will fill your heart with joy and love.

Summary

We read the Little Brown poem summary in this article which is an easy poem for kids. We can conclude that Little Brown Baby is a solely beautiful poem which shows love in its purest form. The author Paul Laurence depicts the lifestyle of Africans in North America and how simple their ways of living are. We have also learned the significance of the father’s love in this poem while learning the unique rhyming scheme of this mesmerizing poetry. We hope you enjoyed reading this beautiful poem.